Urologist-acquired renal access for percutaneous renal surgery.

Objectives: In most endourology programs an interventional radiologist is employed to acquire renal access for percutaneous renal surgery. Over the last 13 years the senior endourologist at Oregon Health Sciences University has acquired access without employing a radiologist. We report our experience with urologist-acquired renal access for percutaneous renal surgery in 522 cases.
Methods: We reviewed the records of all patients at our hospital who underwent percutaneous renal surgery between August 1983 and December 1996 with renal access being obtained in the operating room by a urologist.
Results: Four hundred fifty-six patients underwent 522 procedures. Indications for percutaneous renal surgery were renal and proximal ureteral calculi (n = 516), retained ureteral stent (n = 3), and intrarenal collecting system tumor (n = 3). We were successful in gaining access to 513 of 522 kidneys (98.3%). Access was obtained via a subcostal approach in 344 procedures, over the 12th rib in 152 procedures, over the 11th rib in 15 procedures, and transabdominally in 2 procedures. Sixty-five patients (12.7%) required a second or multiple sites to facilitate complete removal of calculi. Our overall complication rate was 15.3%. Blood transfusion was required in 5.4% of the cases, ileus developed in 1.9%, pneumothorax in 1.1%, intraoperative hydrothorax in 1.1%, postoperative pleural effusion requiring aspiration in 0.9%, and septic shock in 0.9%. Our overall success rate for stone removal was 94.5%.
Conclusions: In our experience, the urologist is able to safely and effectively obtain percutaneous access to the collecting system for percutaneous renal surgery as a one-stage procedure without the aid of interventional radiologists.