safety and efficacy of tubeless percutaneous nephrolithotomy

percutaneous nephrolithotomy (pnl) is commonly used to treat patients with complex renal calculi. placing a nephrostomy tube is the last step after completing pnl. significant early postoperative discomfort after percutaneous procedure is usually secondary to nephrostomy tubes. the goal of this study is to evaluate the safety of tubeless pnl. a total of 45 patients with mean age of 46.6 years entered the study. tubeless pnl was performed in 28 patients and 17 patients were treated with standard pnl. the results of 2 groups were compared with t test. in both groups, pnl was performed successfully without any significant complication. postoperative hospitalization in standard group was 3.71 day and in tubeless group was 1.65 day that significant statistical difference was observed ( p