"Flexible and Effective!" ... Samyuk Busan Hospital Achieves 1,000 Cases of 'Flexible Endoscope' Urolithiasis Removal Surgery

Chief Lee Heon-ju of the Department of Urology is performing flexible ureteroscopic stone removal surgery.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Hwang Dooyul] Samyook Busan Hospital has achieved 1,000 cases of flexible ureteroscopic stone removal surgery performed by a single institution and a single surgeon since the introduction of flexible ureteroscopy in June 2017.

When treating urinary stones that are difficult to remove with extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy, a non-incisional surgery called ureteroscopy is used, where a ureteroscope is inserted through the urethra into the ureter and the stones are fragmented with a holmium laser.

Rigid ureteroscopes are hard and inflexible, making it often difficult to access stones depending on their location.

Additionally, their application range is limited, requiring invasive methods such as percutaneous nephrolithotomy that punctures the kidney or laparoscopic surgery, or multiple repetitions of extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy, causing inconvenience.

Samyook Hospital removes stones located in the upper ureter and inside the renal pelvis and calyces, which were previously inaccessible, using a flexible ureteroscope that overcomes the limitations of rigid ureteroscopy.

Flexible ureteroscopy results in less postoperative pain and hematuria, and patients can be discharged the day after surgery to resume daily activities.

Moreover, it effectively removes large, multiple, and lower calyceal stones in the kidney, which have a low success rate with extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy.

It can also be used to remove some stones that previously required puncture removal, thereby reducing patient complications.

Lee Heonju, head of the Department of Urology at Samyook Busan Hospital, said, “We are grateful to be able to quickly treat patients who had to wait a long time to receive treatment at university hospitals, helping them to be free from pain even a day earlier.”

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