OBJECTIVE To study the safety and efficacy of ureteroscopy as an out-patient procedure. DESIGN Retrospective study. SETTING Teaching hospital, Singapore. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Operating facilities for out-patient ureteroscopy were introduced in late 1998. A retrospective review of all patients undergoing ureteroscopy from March 1999 to December 2000 was conducted. Clinical records were rev...

Objective The Holmium:yttrium-aluminum-garnet (Ho:YAG) laser is the standard lithotrite for ureteroscopy. This paper is to evaluate a Ho:YAG laser with a novel effect function in vitro, which allows a real-time variation of pulse duration and pulse peak power. Methods Two types of phantom calculi with four degrees of hardness were made for fragmentation and retropulsion experiments. Fragmenta...

The zebra guidewire is widely used in endoscopic surgery. Because of its central mental core, it is not easy to break or shear off within the urinary tract. We report a case about the breakage of zebra guidewire in ureteroscopy (URS) with Holmium: YAG laser lithotripsy. It is easily to be managed by percutaneous access or open surgery. For the purpose of minimal invasiveness and risk, we perfor...

BACKGROUND Laser lithotripsy of vesical calculi in tetraplegic subjects with long-term urinary catheters is fraught with complications because of bladder wall oedema, infection, fragile urothelium, bladder spasms, and autonomic dysreflexia. Severe haematuria should be anticipated; failure to institute measures to minimise bleeding and prevent clot retention can be catastrophic. We present an il...

PURPOSE The treatment of urinary tract stones in obese patients may differ from the treatment of non-obese patients and their success rate varies. Our objective was to compare ureteroscopic treatment outcomes of ureteral and renal stones, stratified for stone size and location, between overweight, obese and non-obese patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS Charts were reviewed for 500 consecutive pat...

During the past decade, endourology represents the most advanced technology in urology which has provided minimal invasive diagnostic and therapeutic tool for patients with urology diseases. However, because of the much smaller lumen of genital tract, endoscopic andrology remained a dream for andrologists until the first clinical application of vesiculoscopy in laser lithotripsy of seminal vesi...