Kidney Stone Treatment Efficacy Unaffected By Weight

FRIDAY, Oct. 3 (HealthDay News) -- Body mass index does not affect the efficacy or complication rates of a procedure to treat kidney stones, and overweight and obese individuals are somewhat less costly to treat than normal-weight individuals, according to study findings published in the October issue of Urology.

Aditya Bagrodia, from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and colleagues reviewed the medical records of 150 patients who had undergone percutaneous nephrostolithotomy.

The investigators found that mean stone size, proportion of patients with various stone types (staghorn, multiple and bilateral), stone-free and complication rates, operative time, length of stay, and need for multiple accesses were similar regardless of weight. Compared with the higher weight groups, the normal-weight group (body mass index under 25) had a significantly smaller proportion of recurrent stone formers and patients with a history of stone surgery, the researchers report. Median direct costs were similar for overweight, obese and morbidly obese patients ($6,719-$6,746), and were higher, but not significantly higher, for normal-weight patients ($8,124).

"Body mass index had no impact on efficacy or complication rates of percutaneous nephrostolithotomy," Bagrodia and colleagues conclude. "Despite greater perceived difficulty in performing these procedures in overweight and obese patients, it was not more costly."

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