The first indwelling ureteral
splint was described in 1967. A ureteral
stent can cause unpleasant side effects, such as urinary frequency, urgency, incontinence,
hematuria, bladder
pain and
flank pain, which have a negative impact on a patient's quality of life. It is necessary to minimize the amount of material in the bladder in order to decrease
stent-related symptoms. This study investigated the
stent-related symptoms after changing from a double pigtail to a loop-type ureteral
stent in the same patient group. This study followed 25 patients who underwent ureteral
stent exchange from double pigtail to loop-type ureteral
stent between September 2009 and February 2010. Ureteral
stents were exchanged using topical,
conscious sedation and
general anesthesia for the various procedures including
stent exchange, before/after
shock wave
lithotripsy and before/after ureteroscopy. The
stent length was selected to be the same as whole ureteral length and the caliber based on the previous
stent. A self-administered
stent-related symptom questionnaire was used to assess
stent-related symptoms in comparison to the previous double-pigtail
stents. A total of 25 patients with a median age of 56.5 years underwent ureteral
stent exchange. All patients had stone disease except two patients who had ureteral
stricture. Almost all of
stent-related symptoms without
nocturia showed a significantly lower score with the loop-type ureteral
stent than in double-pigtail
stent. None of the patients experienced
urinary tract infection either before or after undergoing ureteral
stent exchange. Changing to loop-type ureteral
stent significantly decreased ureteral
stent-related symptoms.