Treatment of upper urinary calculi with Ho:YAG laser lithotripter by minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy(A report of 368 cases)

【Objective】To evaluate the efficacy and safety of minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy with Ho:YAG laser on the treatment of upper urinary calculi.【Methods】267 cases of renal calculi patients,89 cases with upper ureteral calculi and 12 cases with renal calculi combined with upper ureteral calculi were treated with minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy with Ho:YAG laser.【Results】356 cases underwent one-stage procedure,another 12 cases underwent two stages.Stone was removed by single tract for 322 cases,two tracts for 42 cases and three tracts for 4 cases.After the operation,34 cases were treated by ESWL.The stone-free rate was 67.1% and total stone-free rate was 90.7%,meanwhile the rate of severe complication was 1.9%.The average stay in hospital was 10 days,the average time of operation was 2 hours and the average time of blood urine was 2 days.【Conclusions】m-PCNL has the advantages of mini-invasivemess,less complication,easy recovery,high stone-free rate.It can be considered as the first choice of treatment of upper urinary calculi.