COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF EFFICACY OF DIFFERENT CALIBRE OF DJ STENT IN RELATION TO URINARY TRACT SYMPTOMS.

INTRODUCTION: ureteral stents (DJ) stents are integral part of endourology but they are not free from side effect. 1 These symptoms are largely due to bladder irritation caused by stent. 2 We report our experience on the evaluation of symptoms related to indwelling DJ stents and their impact on various urinary symptoms, based on different stent calibre, using a validated stent symptom specific questionnaire 3 . METHODS: A total of 150 patients divided in three groups (50 each) were evaluated using 4Fr, 5Fr and 6Fr DJ stent at 7 th day post op, at 21 st day and at 28 th day(7 days after DJ removal) using USSQ score. RESULTS: At 7 th day we found urinary, pain, general and accessory symptoms were significantly lower in 4 Fr group. However no significant difference was seen between 5 and 6 Fr group. At 21 st day tolerance developed in almost all domains with significant difference only in pain and general symptoms, both being higher in 6Fr group.7 days after removal of DJ stent symptom score continue to fall in all the groups. Where urinary and accessory symptoms were least in 4 Fr group there was greatest fall of pain scores in 6 Fr group, probably because of maximum relief in larger calibre group. CONCLUSION: Ours is the 1 st study to compare three different stent sizes including 4 Frcalibre with USSQ scores not widely different but were statistically significant, so we recommend use of smaller calibre stent wherever possible.