Atlas of scoring systems, grading tools and nomograms in Endourology: A comprehensive overview from The TOWER Endourological Society research group.

INTRODUCTION With an increase in the prevalence of kidney stone disease (KSD), there has been a universal drive to develop reliable and user-friendly tools such as grading systems and predictive nomograms. An atlas of scoring systems, grading tools and nomograms in Endourology is provided in this paper. METHODS A comprehensive search of world literature was performed to identify nomograms, grading systems and classification tools in endourology related to KSD. Each of these were reviewed by the authors and have been evaluated in a narrative format with details on those which are externally validated and their respective citation count on google scholar. RESULTS A total of 54 endourological tools have been described in our atlas of endourological scoring systems, grading tools and nomograms. Of the tools, 23 (43%) are published in the last 3 years showing an increasing interest in this area. This includes 5 for percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL), 6 for flexible ureteroscopy (fURS), 3 for semi-rigid URS (sURS), 9 for shockwave lithotripsy (SWL), 2 for stent encrustations, 3 for intra-operative appearance at the time of URS and 3 to classify intra-operative ureteric injury. There were 3 tools for renal colic assessment, one each for prediction of future stone event, stone classification and stone impaction and 2 for need of emergency intervention in ureteric stone. While 2 tools are related to stone recurrence, 6 are related to post-procedural complications. There are now 2 tools for simulation in endourology and 5 for patient reported outcome measures (PROMS). CONCLUSIONS A number of reliable and established tools exist currently in endourology. Each of these offers their own respective advantages and disadvantages. While nomograms and scoring systems can help in the decision making, these must be tailored to individual patients based on their specific clinical scenarios, expectations and informed consent.