Numerous studies have reported on regional or national trends of stone disease treatment. However, no paper has yet examined the global trends of intervention for stone disease.
A systematic review of papers from 2004 to September 2016 for all English language articles reporting on trends of surgical treatment of stone disease was performed. Authors were contacted in the case of data not being clear. If the authors did not reply, data was estimated from graphs or tables. Results were analyzed using SPSS version 21 and trends were analysed using linear regression.
Our systematic review yielded 120 papers, of which 8 were included in the initial review. This reflected outcomes from 6 countries with available data: UK, USA, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Brazil. Overall ureteroscopy had a 251.8% increase in total number of treatments performed with the share of total treatments increasing by 17%. While the share of total treatments for percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) remained static, the share for shock wave lithotripsy (SWL) and open surgery fell by 14.5% and 12% respectively. There was significant linear regression between rising trends of total treatments year on year for ureteroscopy (p<0.001).
In the last two decades, the share of total treatment for urolithiasis across the published literature has increased for ureteroscopy, stable for PCNL and decreased for lithotripsy and open surgery.
Journal of endourology. 2017 Jan 17 [Epub ahead of print]
Robert Geraghty, Patrick Jones, Bhaskar K Somani
University Hospital Southampton, 105634, Southampton, Southampton , United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland ; ., Royal Preston Hospital, 111999, Urology , Sharoe Green Lane North , Preston, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland , PR2 9HT ; ., University Hospitals Southampton NHS Trust, Urology, Southampton, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.