From November 2021 to March 2022, 725 urological surgeons in China were surveyed in the form of a questionnaire, including their province, hospital grade, professional title, the number of patients with
renal colic treated per week, the preferred drugs and the cognition of the disease. This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Peking University People's Hospital, and all respondents completed informed consent online.
RESULTS: During November 2021 and March 2022, urological surgeons across China were surveyed in the form of a questionnaire, and the reliability and validity of the questionnaire were verified before the study was carried out. In the study, 720 valid questionnaires were collected (accounting for 99.31% of the total number), in which 42.4% of the doctors' preferred drugs were non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (
NSAIDs), and 40.0% of the doctors' preferred
antispasmodic drugs.
Opioids were the first choice of 11.0% of the physicians and other treatments were preferred by 6.6% of physicians. In addition, 61.1% of the doctors thought that the mechanism of
renal colic was elevated
prostaglandin, 32.2% thought it was ureteral
spasm, 5.0% thought it was
calculi irritation, and 1.7% thought the mechanism was unclear. The doctor of the cognition of the generation mechanism of
renal colic pain had a significant influence on the preferred treatment option (χ2=54.399, P < 0.001) that the "elevated
prostaglandins" doctor more often preferred
NSAIDs than the doctor who thought
cramps and ureter stones caused
renal colic (51.6% vs. 28.0%, χ2=34.356, P < 0.001;51.6% vs. 19.4%, χ2=13.759, P < 0.001). In addition, hospital class, physician title, and the number of weekly consultations by physicians influenced the choice of medications for
renal colic (P < 0.05), tertiary hospitals, middle and senior professional titles and weekly patients with
renal colic > 8 cases generally preferred
NSAIDs.
CONCLUSION: There are deficiencies in the cognition and
drug treatment of
renal colic among urological surgeons in China. The choice of the preferred
drug was related to the doctor's cognition of the disease, the grade of the hospital, the doctor's professional title and the weekly treatment volume.