‘An interventional urology list’ – a novel concept for UK urological services

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Almost all patients in the UK with obstructed and/or infected kidneys are referred to interventional radiology for percutaneous nephrostomy and/or placement of an anterograde JJ stent. Although this ‘tradition’ is going strong in the UK, urologists throughout the world have evolved their practice to encompass such interventional procedures in their remit. We have set up a local anaesthetic list ‘interventional urology list’ in our ESWL suite. We present our 4-year experience and discuss the benefits that this interventional list brings to our patients, our trainees, our interventional radiology colleagues and to the hospital trust. PATIENTS AND METHODS From May 2005 to May 2009, we have been running this list, twice-weekly, performing procedures such as nephrostomies, anterograde stents, nephrostograms and stent exchanges all under local anaesthetic. RESULTS A total of 580 procedures have been carried out on this list over this period. Our success rate for nephrostomy insertion is 96% with three failures, as a result of patient discomfort. No major complications and three minor complications were reported. We had four failed anterograde stenting procedures (out of 80). All other procedures including nephrostograms, stent exchanges/removals/insertions, as well as renal cyst aspiration and sclerotisation were successfully carried out. CONCLUSIONS Our results of percutaneous nephrostomy and antegrade stenting are favourable when compared with published data on nephrostomies. This novel set up has resulted in several improvements to the service we offer patients and also provided significant improvement in training for our residents. We encourage other departments to try and develop this type of ‘interventional urology list’.