safety and efficacy of the percutaneous nephrolithotomy in pediatrics; a 10-year single-center experience in iran

background: the aim of this study was to describe the one-decade experience in percutaneous nephrolithotomy surgery in children with kidney stones in tehran, iran. methods: all patients (less than 18 years old) undergoing percutaneous nephrolithotomy at our referral medical center, were reviewed in this cross-sectional study. all the demographics, surgical data and post-operative information were obtained to identify the stone free rates and complications. results: in a total, 119(56.4%) cases of 211 patients who underwent percutaneous nephrolithotomy in our study were male and 92(43.6%) cases were female. the mean age of participants was 137.15±60.11 months (range: 9-204). the most common presenting symptom was pain (62.6%). the mean stone burden was 23.5 ± 9.68mm and the mean operative time was 109.95±37.1 min. overall, stone clearance rate was 73.9% after single pnl. among those patients who had renal malformation, the stone free rate was (13/19) 68.4% for pcnl. the postoperative complication rate was 5/47 (10.6%) during all procedures and there were no major operative or postoperative complications. conclusions: according to the findings, pediatric pcnl with the acceptable stone free rates could be considered as a safe and effective procedure among children with complex stones and renal malformation.