Effectiveness and complications of ESWL in the treatment of renal pelvis stones in the children less than 8 years of age in Sanandaj, Iran 2007-2015

Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) has revolutionized the treatment of kidney stones in children. However, use of this technology has several complications which cast doubt on its safety and effectiveness. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and complications of extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy in the treatment of renal pelvis stones in the children less than 8 years of age.
Material and This retrospective study included children less than 8 years of age with renal pelvis stones who had been referring to Tohid Hospital in Sanandaj, between 2007 and 2015. Data of the patients, such as age, sex, clinical status, stone free rate, days of hospitalization, response rate to treatment and complications were obtained from the patient's medical records. We used a checklist to collect data of 35 children less than 8 years of age (including 37 kidneys) with renal pelvis stones who had been treated with ESWL in Tohid Hospital. SPSS software and descriptive statistics (absolute and relative frequency, mean and standard deviation) were used for data analysis.
The sizes of the stones were between 8 and 25 mm. Thirty three patients (94.5%) were treated after one ESWL session and two patients (5.5%) were treated after two ESWL sessions. Six patients (16.2%) developed fever due to urinary tract infection; in two cases free stones lodged in ureter and 8 cases (21.6%) required hospitalization after ESWL. Hematuria occurred in all cases. Subcapsular hematoma was not observed in the patients. Blood transfusion was not given to the patients. The effectiveness of ESWL and stone free rate had inverse relationship with the age of the patients and sizes of the stones.
In this study extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy was an extremely effective method for the treatment of renal pelvis stones in children and major and irreversible complications were not common. ESWL was more suitable for the treatment of the stones of less than 20 mm.