To explore risk factors for the efficacy and complications of surgery for infectious kidney stones.

The clinical data of 75 patients with infection kidney stones from January 2015 to May 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. This group of 75 patients, were 23 to 74 of age, with mean of (49.3±10.4) years old. Among them, 25 were male and 50 were female. The mean diameter of the stones was (5.4±2.7)cm. There were 29 cases of staghorn stones, 25 cases of multiple kidney stones, and 21 cases of single kidney stones. Preoperative renal function measuring by creatinine was 68 (51, 68)μmol/L. Twenty-five patients (33.3%) were combined with comorbidities, including diabetes mellitus, neurogenic bladder, spinal cord injury, cerebrovascular disease, or urinary anatomical malformation. All the patients underwent surgical treatment, including percutaneous nephrolithotomy, flexible ureteroscopy, and combined endoscopy. Postoperatively, urosepsis was diagnosed according to the SOFA score. One month after the operation, CT or KUB were re-examined to evaluate the efficacy of the operation. Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the risk factors for surgical efficacy, complications and sepsis.

All 75 patients undewent successful surgery. The overall stone clearance rate was 64%, and the single-factor analysis showed that the stone diameter (P=0.001) and stone type (P=0.002) were the impacting factors of the surgical efficacy of infectious kidney stone. Multivariate analysis showed that stone type (OR=2.55, 95%CI 1.00-6.51, P=0.049) was an independent risk factor influencing the efficacy of surgery for infectious kidney stones. A total of 24 cases experienced surgical complications after surgery, including 18 cases of infection, 3 cases of bleeding, and 3 cases of subcapsular hemorrhage, and the complication rate was 32.0%(24/75). Univariate analysis showed that hydronephrosis (P=0.039), comorbidities (P=0.009), and preoperative renal function (P=0.008) were risk factors for postoperative complications of infectious nephrolithiasis, and multivariate analysis showed that comorbidities (OR=0.21, 95%CI 0.05-0.90, P=0.029) were independent risk factors for postoperative complications. The incidence of postoperative urosepsis was 6.7%, and univariate analysis did not find any risk factors for sepsis.

Stone type is a factor that affects the efficacy of surgery for infectious kidney stones, and comorbidities are factors that affect surgical complications.

Kidney calculi; Infections; Efficacy; Postoperative complications; Root cause analysis