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Objectives: To research the effect of listening to music during shock wave lithotripsy (SWL) on the patient's pain control, anxiety levels, and satisfaction., Patients and Methods: The study comprised 400 patients from three hospitals. Half of patients listened to music during their first SWL session but not during their second session. The other half had no music for the first session but the second session was accompanied by music. During all sessions, with and without music, pulse rates, blood pressure, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-State Anxiety scores (STAI-SA), Visual Analog Scale (VAS scores for pain), willingness to repeat procedure (0 = never to 4 happily), and patient satisfaction rates (0 = poor to 4 = excellent) were assessed., Results: There was no statistical difference between the two groups in terms of blood pressure and pulse rates. In both groups, the STAI-SA and VAS pain scores were lower in the session when music was listened to (p < 0.001). The patients requested more SWL treatment be completed while listening to music and their satisfaction was greater., Conclusion: Music lowered the anxiety and pain scores of patients during SWL and provided greater satisfaction with treatment. Completing this procedure while the patient listens to music increases patient compliance greatly and reduces analgesic requirements.

In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of ureterorenoscopy (URS) on morbidity and renal functions in patients with ureteral stones and nondialysis-requiring renal insufficiency. The data of 3200 patients who had ureterorenoscopic lithotripsy and diagnostic URS were analyzed retrospectively. Age, urea and creatinine levels in the preoperative period and 4 h after surgery, the size of the stone, duration of surgery, percentage change in urea and creatinine levels [(last level-first level/first level) × 100] and postoperative complications were noted. Student's t-test was used for the intergroup analysis of continuous variables. p < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. There were 90 patients in nondialysis-requiring renal insufficiency group (group 1) and 101 patients in the control group (group 2). Percentage changes of urea and creatinine levels in the renal insufficiency and the control groups were found as -0.3% ± 3.3, 0.67% ± 3.9 and 2.3% ± 23.2, 2.5% ± 31.6 (p = 0.24 and p = 0.56), respectively. In group 1, three (3.3%) patients had postoperative febrile urinary infection, however febrile infections were not seen in any of the patients in group 2 (p = 0.06). Our results indicated that URS might be used safely in ureteral stones of the patients with nondialysis-requiring renal insufficiency.

Background and Objective: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections are important causes of morbidity and mortality in maintenance hemodialysis patients. Although their exact prevalence is not known, HBV and HCV viral infections and occult viral hepatitis are frequent in these patients. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of occult HBV and HCV infections in maintenance hemodialysis patients., Materials and Methods: One hundred and eighty-eight end-stage renal disease patients on maintenance hemodialysis (100 male, mean age 49+/-29 [16-80] years, and mean duration of hemodialysis 98+/-66 [12-228] months) were enrolled in this study. Serological markers for HBV and HCV were determined with immunoenzymatic assay (ELISA) by using commercial diagnostic kits (Access and BioRad, Beckman-Coulter). HCV-RNA (Cobas Amplicor HCV kit) and HBV-DNA (Artus GmbH HBV kit) were determined quantitatively by polymerase chain reaction., Results: Among the patients screened, 25 (13.3%) had HBV infection alone and 38 (20.2%) had HCV infection alone, while seven (3.7%) had dual infection of both viruses. Serological markers for occult hepatitis B and occult hepatitis C were positive in five (2.7%) and nine (4.8%) of the patients, respectively. Isolated anti-HBc was positive in 12 (6.4%) of all patients, three (7.9%) of the patients with anti-HCV and two (40%) of the patients with occult hepatitis B. Isolated anti-HBc positivity was more frequent in patients with occult hepatitis B than in those without (40% [2/5] vs. 5.5% [10/183], p=0.002). None of the patients with HCV had occult hepatitis B., Conclusions: Both occult and non-occult forms of HCV infection are more prevalent than HBV infection in hemodialysis patients. Especially the patients with isolated anti-HBc positivity should be tested for probable occult hepatitis B infection.