When you treat a symptomatic ureteral stone with URS, do you also treat an asymptomatic contralateral nonobstructing renal stone in the same session?

Great question. Whenever I offer patients surgical stone treatments, I review their imaging with them, including the stone burden in both kidneys. I focus the discussion on the symptomatic side, but also review any contralateral stone burden and the potential for developing subsequent symptoms or co...

In the early days of ureteroscopy, several single-use devices were developed to prevent migration of the ureteral stones or stone fragments back up to the kidney (Stone Cone®, Backstop®, etc.). Currently, with innovations in single-use ureteroscopes and the advent of suction technology, access to st...

Fantastic question. I don't think there is a single right answer. Data would suggest that bilateral treatment is safe and that active treatment may reduce subsequent stone events, but I generally recommend that this be a highly patient-specific decision. A couple of points I would emphasize:

1. Make s...