Ureteroscopy for treatment of obstructing ureteral calculi in pregnant women: Single center experience

ObjectivesTo evaluate our experiences with ureteroscopic treatment of ureteral calculi in pregnancy.Patients and methodsBetween April 2006 and October 2013, 41 pregnant women with persistent renal colics and/or hematuria refractory to conservative measures were treated with ureteroscopy. The patients’ mean age was 23 (range 19–37) years. Most of the patients (56.1%) presented in the 2nd trimester.Loin pain and colic were the most common presenting symptoms (90.2%). Twenty-seven patients (65.9%) had an obstruction on the right side. All patients underwent ureteroscopy under epidural anesthesia.ResultsUreteroscopy revealed the presence of ureteric stones in 36 of the 41 cases. The stone size ranged from 5 to 16 (mean 8.9) mm. Distal ureteric stones were found in 29 patients. The pneumatic lithoclast was used for stone fragmentation in 22 of them (75.9%), while the stone was directly extracted in 4 patients. In 3 patients the stone migrated proximally and was not accessible any more. Proximal ureteric stones were detected in 7 of the remaining 12 cases. When attempting to manipulate these stones, they migrated more proximally and became unreachable. In the last 5 patients the entire ureter was free of stones; they only had edema at the ureteric orifice. A long lasting JJ stent was left until the end of the pregnancy in all cases with migrated inaccessible stones. In all patients successfully treated, a JJ stent with dangle extraction strings was left for two weeks. Minor urologic complications were encountered in the form of mild dysuria in 12 cases (29.2%) and mild hematuria in 5 cases (12.2%). All patients completed their pregnancy until full term without any serious obstetric complications requiring intervention.ConclusionUreteroscopy is a safe and effective therapeutic option for the treatment of obstructing ureteral stones in pregnancy with stone-free and complication rates comparable to the non-pregnant population.