Pleural effusions due to pleural injury following supracostal percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) occur in upwards of 15% of patients; however, these effusions are invariably diagnosed immediately postoperative or during the hospital stay. Herein, we report our initial experience with a delayed nephropleural fistula. A 52-year-old female underwent an uneventful supracostal right PCNL staghorn stone procedure and was discharged on postoperative day 1. She presented to the emergency department 8 days after her original procedure and one day after ureteral stent removal in the office, with right pleural effusion, concomitant contralateral renal colic secondary to migration of a left pelvic stone into her left proximal ureter, and acute renal failure/oliguria. She was treated with right chest tube drainage, bilateral nephrostomy tube placement, and subsequent left holmium laser ureterolithotripsy.

Background: A minority of urologists performing percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) achieve their own nephrostomy access. In an effort to simplify the access part of PCNL, we herein describe our initial experience with endoscopic-guided retrograde percutaneous access in the prone split-leg position. Case Presentation(s): After informed consent, a confirmed negative urine culture, and 1 week pretreatment with tamsulosin, four carefully selected PCNL patients underwent endoscopic-guided retrograde access in a prone split-leg position using the Lawson catheter. In all the four patients, we achieved endoscopic-guided retrograde upper pole access in the prone split-leg position. A single Clavien 3B complication occurred. Total fluoroscopy time for the PCNL averaged 162 seconds (51-283). Complete stone-free rate at 1 week based on CT scan was 25%, and a stone-free rate defined as <4 mm was 100%. Conclusion: Endoscopic-guided retrograde percutaneous upper pole access can be established efficiently with a modified Lawson technique in the prone split-leg position.

Introduction

We evaluated and compared five currently available energy-based vessel sealing devices to assess typical surgical metrics.

Methods

We tested Caiman 5 (C5), Harmonic Scalpel Ace Plus (HA), Harmonic Ace +7 (HA7), LigaSure (LS), and Enseal G2 (ES) on small (2-5 mm), medium (5.1-7 mm), and large (7.1-9 mm) vessels obtained from 15 Yorkshire pigs. Vessels were randomly sealed and transected. We recorded sealing and transection time, charring and carbonization, thermal spread, and bursting pressure (BP). Specimens were sent for histopathologic evaluation of seal quality and thermal spread.

Results

A total of 246 vessels were evaluated: 125 were arteries and 121 were veins. There was no difference in BPs for small size arteries. For medium arteries, C5 provided the highest BP (proximal and distal jaw), followed by HA7, ES, LS, and HA [1740, 1600, 1165, 1165, 981, and 571 mm Hg, respectively, HAConclusionsIn this study, C5 outperformed all other devices. However, all of the devices provide a seal that was superphysiologic in that all burst pressures were >250 mm Hg.