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Abstract: Laparoscopic nephrectomy has become the gold standard procedure for nonfunctioning or symptomatic benign kidneys due to renal calculi, obstructive, refluxive, and inflammatory nephropathies or renovascular hypertension. We aimed to investigate the effect of renal calculi as a reason of non-functioning on the progress and complication rates of the retroperitoneoscopic nephrectomy (RPN).During a 2-year period, 108 patients with benign renal conditions underwent RPN by single surgeon. Among these patients, total of 27 (Group 1) with a non-functioning kidney due to renal calculi were retrospectively compared with 27 patients (Group 2) with other benign renal conditions. The two groups were matched for age, body mass index, and previous renal surgery. We analyzed operative and post-operative findings and complications. The mean age and the BMI of the groups were similar. The operation time was significantly longer in Group 1 than Group 2 (p = 0.0001). There was no significant difference between the groups with respect to mean hemoglobin drop postoperatively (p = 0.9) and hospitalization time (p = 0.06). The perioperative and postoperative complication rates were higher in Group 1 but not statistically different from Group 2 (p = 0.19, p = 0.29, respectively). RPN for nonfunctioning calculous kidneys is more challenging procedure and is associated with prolonged operation time related to difficult dissection of dense adhesions. It can be safely performed by experienced hands with similar perioperative and postoperative complication rates as well as for other benign conditions of the kidney.

Abstract: The components of metabolic syndrome, such as obesity, hypertension, and diabetes, are thought to be associated with urolithiasis. However, there are few large-scale studies that have examined the association between metabolic syndrome and urolithiasis, which prompted us to study and evaluate the relationship between metabolic syndrome components and urolithiasis in a nationwide survey, using the cross-sectional study conducted by a professional investigation company, with 2,468 enrolled participants, aged between 18 and 70 years, from 33 provinces in Turkey. Participants were interviewed face-to-face by medical faculty students. Participants with a history of urolithiasis (Group 1) were compared with participants without a history of urolithiasis (Group 2) in terms of hypertension, diabetes, body-mass index (BMI), waist size, and trouser size using Chi-square and odds ratio tests. Of the 2,468 participants, 274 (11.1%) reported a history of urinary stone disease diagnosed by a physician. The percentage of participants with hypertension along with urolithiasis was significantly higher than that in participants without urolithiasis (16.9 and 34.3%, p 0.000, OR 3.0). The percentage of participants with diabetes in groups 1 and 2 was 14.2 and 9%, respectively (p 0.001, OR 1.83). The mean BMI was 27.2 and 25.2, respectively (p 0.01). Participants with a BMI >30 had a 2.2-fold increased risk of having urolithiasis. The mean waist size was significantly greater in participants with urolithiasis (p 0.000). Those with a waist size >100 cm had a 1.87-fold increased risk of having urolithiasis. The mean trouser size was also significantly larger in those participants who were stone formers (p 0.003). The results indicate that metabolic syndrome components are important factors in the development of urolithiasis.

Management of urinary tract stones in children represents a challenging problem. In this study we retrospectively analyzed our experience with extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (SWL) in children.

Duplex collecting systems are the most commonly encountered anomaly of the urinary system. Complete duplex system with an H shaped ureter is a very rare situation. There are only two reported H ureter cases in the literature. Herein, we aimed to present an H shaped ureter case, which was identified while performing ureterorenoscopy to a 48-year-old female patient due to a right distal ureteral stone.