Artifacts from poor ureteroscopes' light design with shadowing and dark areas in the field of view have been reported. The aim was to quantify effects of light obstruction in a kidney calyx model.
We evaluated a series of contemporary flexible ureteroscopes including the Storz Flex-Xc and Flex-X2s, Olympus V3 and P7, Pusen 7.
5F and 9.2F, as well as OTU Wiscope using an enclosed 3D-printed pink in vitro kidney calyx model submerged in saline, where the field of light was intentionally partially obstructed alternatively at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock. A color spectrometer was used for illuminance measurements at a 45° opening position in the background of the model.
Overall and mean background illuminance for each obstructive situation were significantly different between scopes for both 50% and 100% brightness settings (ANOVA p < 0.001). At 50% brightness setting, almost all scopes had their highest and lowest background illuminance with the 6 o'clock and 3 o'clock obstructive situation, respectively. At 100% brightness setting, these became 6 o'clock and 12 o'clock obstructive situations. Considering each obstructive situation individually, the Flex-Xc was consistently the scope with highest background illuminance and the Pusen 7.5F the lowest. Background illuminance for each obstructive situation varied significantly for each scope individually, with the greatest range of variability for Pusen 7.5F and V3.
Illuminance performance of ureteroscopes within an obstructed calyx model differ significantly for various obstructive situations. Urologists should be aware of this to help guide their choice of ureteroscope.
World journal of urology. 2024 Mar 23*** epublish ***
Jia-Lun Kwok, Eugenio Ventimiglia, Vincent De Coninck, Alba Sierra, Frédéric Panthier, Mariela Corrales, Yazeed Barghouthy, Vineet Gauhar, Benedikt Kranzbühler, Florian Alexander Schmid, Cédric Poyet, Daniel Eberli, Olivier Traxer, Etienne Xavier Keller
Department of Urology, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Frauenklinikstrasse 10, 8091, Zurich, Switzerland., Progressive Endourological Association for Research and Leading Solutions (PEARLS), Paris, France., Department of Urology, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Frauenklinikstrasse 10, 8091, Zurich, Switzerland. .
PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38520528