Percutaneous nephrolithotripsy in children using miniature instruments.

Introduction. Currently, percutaneous nephrolithotripsy is the main treatment for large and coral-like kidney stones in children. The purpose of the study was to increase the effectiveness of percutaneous nephrolithotripsy (PCNL) in children using miniature-sized instruments. Materials and methods. For the period from 2008 to 2019, 320 children aged 1 to 17 years underwent nephrolithotripsy in the pediatric department of the N. Lopatkin Scientific Research Institute of Urology. Depending on the size of the instruments used, patients were divided into 3 groups. The first group included children who underwent surgery using the Mini-PCNL technique (n-211), the second group included patients operated on using the Ultra-Mini-PCNL method (n-16) and the third group included children whose percutaneous intervention was performed using a standard-sized nephroscope (n-93). The intervention was carried out according to the standard method; all patients underwent cystoscopy, catheterization of the ureter, access formation, lithotripsy, lithoextraction and installation of nephrostomy drainage. Results. In the first group of children studied, complete elimination of clinically significant sto