THE EFFECT OF DOUBLE J STENT ON THE EFFICACY OF EXTRACORPOREAL SHOCK WAVE LITHOTRIPSY IN THE TREATMENT OF URETERAL STONES.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of double J stent on the efficacy of extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy in the treatment of ureteral stones. Patients and methods: Open labelled prospective audit of patients with solitary ureteric calculi receiving ESWL in a single centre was performed during May 2015 to July 2017.The study group consisted of 176 ureteric stone patients who were treated with ESWL. In 68 cases, treatment was preceded by ureteric stent insertion. Success was defined as complete stone clearance in post procedure X ray KUB imaging after 2 weeks. Demographic data of patients and stone characteristics were correlated with ESWL outcome. Logistic regression analysis was applied to evaluate the hypothesis of an interaction between stone size and the presence of a D J stent. Results: The mean age of patients were 39.68 years (range 21-68), 70.45 % (124 /176) of patients were males. Mean stone size was 13.2 mm. The overall success rate with ESWL is 68.18%. Treatment was more effective for smaller (p = 0.162) and more proximally located stones (p = 0.025). A DJ stent in situ at the time of ESWL reduced the success rate for stones with size more than10 mm (p = 0.032). Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that the presence of double J stent reduces the success rate of ESWL treatment when the stone size is more than 10 mm in size.