Determinants of Health-related Quality of Life for Patients After Renal Lithotripsy: PNL Versus RIRS

Plain-language summary

Percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PNL) and Retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS) are well-established procedures for renal stone fragmentation; however, the morbidity, hospitalization, and lost work hours associated with these procedures can negatively affect the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of the patients \[1-3\]. The choice of modality is based on the European Association of Urology (EAU) and/or American Urological Association (AUA) guidelines. However, selecting a modality is challenging, considering the advantages and drawbacks of both modalities. RIRS while minimally invasive, has an inferior stone-free rate compared with PNL; however, PNL requires general anesthesia and longer hospitalization \[4\]. The need to select the therapeutic modality for urinary lithotripsy based not only on the stone-free rate but also on the subsequent HRQoL of the patient is increasingly recognized \[5\]. The concept of HRQoL is multidimensional, which includes psychosocial, physical, and emotional factors, as well as patient autonomy, and is applicable to a wide variety of medical conditions \[6\]. Patients with urolithiasis represent an ideal group for the investigation of HRQoL, considering the disease's high prevalence, non-life-threatening nature, severe symptoms, and high recurrence rate \[3\]. However, only a few longitudinal studies have investigated HRQoL in patients undergoing lithotripsy for urinary calculi \[7\]. Several studies have evaluated HRQoL using the Short-Form 36-item survey (SF-36) \[3, 7-9\]. Hence, this study aims to compare longitudinal HRQoL between PNL and RIRS at four timepoints: before surgery (Bef), on the day of discharge (0 mo), and 1 month (1 mo) and 6 months (6 mo) after surgical intervention, and to further investigate the factors that may significantly affect the HRQoL of these patients

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