Safety and efficacy of the Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy in Pediatrics; A 10-year single-center experience in Iran

The aim of this study was to describe the one-decade experience in Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy surgery in children with kidney stones in Tehran, Iran.
All patients (less than 18 years old) undergoing Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy at our referral medical center, were reviewed in this cross-sectional study. All the demographics, surgical data and post-operative information were obtained to identify the stone free rates and complications.
In a total, 119(56.4%) cases of 211 patients who underwent Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy in our study were male and 92(43.6%) cases were female. The mean age of participants was 137.15±60.11 months (range: 9-204). The most common presenting symptom was pain (62.6%). The mean stone burden was 23.5 ± 9.68mm and the mean operative time was 109.95±37.1 min. Overall, stone clearance rate was 73.9% after single PNL. Among those patients who had renal malformation, the stone free rate was (13/19) 68.4% for PCNL. The postoperative complication rate was 5/47 (10.6%) during all procedures and there were no major operative or postoperative complications.
According to the findings, pediatric PCNL with the acceptable stone free rates could be considered as a safe and effective procedure among children with complex stones and renal malformation.