Percutaneous nephrostomy vs. double-J stenting for emergency decompression in recurrent ipsilateral stone-related infectious obstruction

The study compared two emergency decompression methods in 69 patients (35 with percutaneous nephrostomy and 34 with double-J stenting) with infectious obstruction caused by kidney stones. Percutaneous nephrostomy took longer to perform (42.53 minutes versus 32.69 minutes), but led to faster reduction of body temperature below 37.3 °C (2.94 hours versus 4.36 hours) and shorter hospital stay during decompression (3.26 days versus 4.13 days). During subsequent surgery, operative time was shorter in the nephrostomy group (50.35 minutes versus 74.91 minutes) and postoperative stay was also shorter (2.84 days versus 3.45 days). Stone-free rates were comparable between both groups (91.4% versus 88.2%). The results suggest that percutaneous nephrostomy may be a more effective choice for emergency decompression.