Editorial: Pediatric nephrolithiasis

Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy for urinary tract stones in pediatric patients: Our 11 years of experience

Background/Aim: Urinary system stone disease creates a significant burden on the health system. Many treatment methods are available, including extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL), endourological procedures, and open and laparoscopic procedures. In recent years, in parallel with technological developments, endourological devices have become more usable in the renal system. For this reason, urologists are opting for endourological procedures more frequently. ESWL is the least invasive procedure for urinary system stone disease, and it has a higher success rate in pediatric patients than in adults. In this retrospective cohort study, we analyzed the data from the pediatric cases in which we used ESWL treatment in our clinic. We aimed to reveal the effectiveness of ESWL and the factors that will increase the success rate of this procedure in light of the current literature. Methods: The files of patients aged 16 years and under who underwent ESWL at the Urology Clinic of University of Health Sciences Sanliurfa Mehmet Akif Inan Training and Research Hospital between January 2010 and December 2021 were retrospectively reviewed. Age, gender, stone area, stone localization, number of sessions, energy and frequency used, complete stone-free status, and secondary intervention requirement were recorded. The absence of stone fragments or the presence of fragments smaller than 3 mm only in imaging after ESWL was considered a success. Results: This study included 433 pediatric patients. The mean age of the patients was calculated as 12.02 (4.67) (range: 1–16) years. The most important factors affecting the number of residual stones were stone localization (P = 0.045) and size (P < 0.001). When stone localization was compared according to patient age, the older patients were found to have a significantly higher rate of stones in the proximal ureter than in the lower calyx of the kidney (P = 0.045) and renal pelvis (P = 0.048). Conclusion: Although there are continual advances in other minimally invasive surgical methods today, ESWL is a treatment method that can be safely applied in pediatric patients. Stone size and stone localization are the two most important factors affecting its success rate.

External Validation of Two Predictive Models for Postoperative Fever After Retrograde Intrarenal Surgery in Pediatric Patients

Objective: The aim of this study is to validate the efficacy and reliability of two predictive models for postoperative fever after retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS) in pediatric patients Materials and Methods: A total of 124 children who were treated with RIRS between August 2014 and August 2020 in our center were included. All the predictors were obtained by preoperative routine examinations. Receiver operative curve (ROC) and area under curve (AUC) were showed to compare the predictive power of the two models. Results: One hundred twenty-four children included of 94 boys and 30 girls, with median ages of 2.1 (1.3, 7.0) years and median body mass index of 17.3 (15.6, 20.6) kg/m². The total points of the two nomograms were 81.0 (67.3, 90.3) and 45.5 (20.4, 94.0). Eventually, 21 children (16.9%) suffered from postoperative fever. With the exception of C-reactive protein values (25.0 mg/L vs 5.0 mg/L, p = 0.015), irrigation volumes (800 mL vs 500 mL, p = 0.01), and total points of the two predictive models (Nomogram 1: 88.0 vs 76.0, p < 0.001; Nomogram 2: 76.0 vs 39.0, p = 0.016), there was no statistical difference detected between the fever and nonfever groups. ROCs showed that Nomogram 1 presented with better predictive accuracy and efficacy with excellent AUC values of 0.805 in comparison with Nomogram 2 (0.805 vs 0.664, p = 0.025). Conclusion: We reported a sample of 124 children undergoing RIRS with a final stone-free rate of 87.1%. Twenty-one pediatric patients (16.9%) suffered from postoperative fever. Nomogram 1 presented with better predictive power for postoperative fever after RIRS in pediatric patients.

Comparison of efficacy and safety of minimally invasive procedures for 10-20 mm pediatric renal Stones-A bayesian network meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE

To assess the efficacy and safety of various minimally invasive procedures for 10-20 mm pediatric renal stones by Bayesian network meta-analysis (NWA).

METHODS

We searched clinical comparative trials published in Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane Library from inception to 12 April 2020. Two researchers evaluated the quality and extracted data individually. Data was analyzed using STATA and GEMYC R package.

RESULTS

The overall network meta-analytic outcome of stone free rate (SFR) in a single session revealed that Retrograde Intrarenal Stone Surgery (RIRS), miniaturized percutaneous nephrolithotomy (mPCNL) and PCNL showed superiority to extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy (ESWL). Statistical significance was not detected between any intervention from our pooled network analysis of complication rate. SMP was the most likely to ranking in first place to render stone free status, and it also showed the lowest risk possibility of complications. Mini-PCNL had longer operation time and hospitalization than ESWL. The global and loop inconsistency evaluation demonstrated a rather acceptable outcome apart from the comparisons of complication rate between two randomized control studies.

DISCUSSION

Herein, the authors reviewed and explored the optimal management pattern for pediatric 10-20 mm renal stones. This NWA revealed RIRS and mPCNL could render higher SFR without increasing risk of complications compared with ESWL. Although SMP was deemed to be the best choice in our study, the limited source of study and sample size implied the results required to be further validated. In addition, there were still some problems requiring to be underlined for various surgical options.

CONCLUSIONS

ESWL was inferior to RIRS, mPCNL and PCNL for 10-20 mm pediatric renal stones, among which SMP might be the most ideal option associated with the least possibility of complications and the highest probability of stone clearance.