Health-related quality of life in patients undergoing lithotripsy for urinary stones

Objectives The objective of this study was to analyze the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients undergoing lithotripsy for urinary stones. Materials and methods This study comprised 76 patients with urinary stones who were treated by lithotripsy, which included shock wave lithotripsy (SWL), ureteroscopic lithotripsy, percutaneous nephrolithotripsy and ureterolithotomy in 66 patients, 25 patients, six patients and three patients, respectively. During the observation period of this series, 37 patients received additional lithotripsy for recurrent urinary stones. HRQoL was evaluated using the Short Form-36 (SF-36) survey assessing eight aspects associated with general health status. Results There were no significant differences in any scale scores between the 76 patients with urinary stones and age- and gender-matched Japanese norms. Bodily pain (BP) in 37 patients undergoing lithotripsy twice or more appeared to be significantly lower than that in 39 undergoing lithotripsy only once; however, there were no significant differences in the remaining seven scores according to the number of courses of lithotripsy. Furthermore, 47 patients treated by SWL alone had a significantly higher score for general health perception (GH) than 29 who underwent lithotripsy by methods other than SWL, while there were no significant differences in the remaining seven scores between these two groups. Conclusions In general, patients undergoing lithotripsy for urinary stones may have a comparatively favorable HRQoL; however, BP and GH were impaired in patients undergoing lithotripsy twice or more and those treated by invasive modalities, respectively. Considering these findings, it would be important to prevent recurrent stone formation and to develop less invasive procedures to further improve HRQoL in patients undergoing lithotripsy for urinary stones.