Extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy or percutaneous nephrolithotomy for lower pole nephrolithiasis?

A controversy has arisen as to whether the initial form of therapy for lower pole nephrolithiasis should be extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy (SWL) or percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL). We reviewed our results with 968 single lower pole stones treated by SWL and reviewed publications comparing SWL and PCNL for lower pole nephrolithiasis. In our cases, the stone-free rate was 71.2%, the rate of repeat treatment and post-treatment secondary procedures was 6.4%, the complication rate was 0.5%, and the hospital stay was less than 24 hours in 99.3% of patients. In published series of PCNL for lower pole nephrolithiasis, the stone free rate was 70.5% to 100%, repeat treatment rates were 4% to 62.5%, the complication rates were 13% to 38%, and the hospital stay was 3.1 to 6.1 days. The rates of recurrent stone disease with PCNL were 11% to 22%, similar to the rates after SWL. The percentage of renal urolithiasis patients with lower pole calculi since we started our unit in late 1986 has remained essentially constant at 38%. Although the stone-free rate with PCNL is higher than with SWL, the lower complication rate, lower repeat treatment/secondary procedure rate, the shorter hospital stay, and the similar recurrent stone rate with SWL make SWL more clinically effective as the primary therapy for lower pole calculi less than 2 cm in diameter.