Efficacy of a basket catheter used in transurethral lithotripsy

: Between January 2005 and August 2010, transurethral lithotripsy (TUL) was performed in 117 patients with upper urinary tract stones. TUL was performed without the basket catheter ZeroTipTM in 50 patients (group A) and with ZeroTip TM in 67 patients (group B). There was no significant difference in the successful stone disintegration rate between group A (86%) and group B (90%). However, the postoperative successful stone-free rate was 76 and 88% (p＝0.04) in groups A and B, respectively, and the intraoperative successful stone-free rate was 43 and 71% (p＝0.002), respectively. Intraoperative ureteral stents were placed in 62 and 46% of the patients in groups A and B (p＝0.004), respectively. By successfully becoming stone-free with this procedure, the need of ureteral stent placement decreased, thereby reducing the postoperative cases of irritable bladder caused by a ureteral catheter, and contributing to improvement of the patient's quality of life.