ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Surg.

Sec. Genitourinary Surgery and Interventions

Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsurg.2025.1554964

Clinical Advantages of Suctioning Flexible Ureteroscopy with Intelligent Pressure Control on Treating Large Upper Urinary Tract Calculi

Provisionally accepted
Weiping  CaiWeiping CaiBin  ZhengBin ZhengXinwei  LiXinwei LiXingjian  GaoXingjian GaoZedong  ZhangZedong ZhangYijin  LuYijin LuHualong  ZhaoHualong ZhaoJunhong  YouJunhong YouGangfeng  ZhengGangfeng ZhengWeilong  BaoWeilong BaoYutong  LaiYutong LaiYisong  LvYisong Lv*
  • the General Hospital of Fujian Energy Group, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Suctioning Flexible Ureteroscopy with Intelligent Pressure Control (SFUI) has the advantage of automatically capturing and breaking urinary tract calculi while maintaining renal pelvic pressure stability. This retrospective study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of SFUI in treating upper urinary tract calculi of large sizes. A total of 200 patients with upper urinary tract calculi who underwent SFUI treatment in a single location from 2020 to 2021 were included. Outcomes were a one-session stone-free rate (SFR), one-month SFR, and complications within 4 weeks after SFUI classified by Clavien-Dindo grades. Patients' median age was 50.0 years and a majority (65%) was males. Among them, 119 patients had small calculi (< 2 cm) and 81 patients had large calculi (≥ 2 cm); 1 (0.8%) patient in the small calculi group, and 4 (4.9%) patients in the large calculi group had complications ≥ Grade II. Multivariable analysis showed that the large calculi group had significantly lower odds ratio for total one-session SFR (adjusted odds ratio (aOR): 0.22, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.07-0.67, p=0.008, S-value=6.97) and one-month SFR (aOR: 0.27, 95% CI: 0.09-0.83, p=0.022, S-value=5.64) compared to the small calculi group, whereas calculi size was not associated with complication rate (aOR: 2.62, p=0.43,. In conclusions, SFUI is safe and effective for immediate stone removal after surgery. The very low complication rate benefits fast recovery, 3 especially for patients with large calculi.

Keywords: Clavien-Dindo classification, stone-free rate, Suctioning Flexible Ureteroscopy with Intelligent Pressure Control, Upper urinary tract calculi, Calculi

Received: 03 Jan 2025; Accepted: 19 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Cai, Zheng, Li, Gao, Zhang, Lu, Zhao, You, Zheng, Bao, Lai and Lv. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Yisong Lv, the General Hospital of Fujian Energy Group, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China

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