Comparing Treatment of Urolithiasis Between Disposable and Reusable Ureteroscope

Kidney Calculi Clinical Trial

Official title:

Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing Disposable to Reusable Flexible Ureteroscope for Treatment of Upper Urinary Tract Stone

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03040466
• Other study ID #: 16-20844
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: August 2014
• Est. completion date: September 2016

Study information

• Verified date: September 2020
• Source: University of California, San Francisco
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Reusable flexible ureteroscopes are widely used to treat various upper urinary tract diseases including urinary stones. However, they require a long turnover time between procedures because of the sterilization process. Moreover, repeated use of a scope ultimately deteriorates its image quality which leads to a high maintenance cost in the long-term. A disposable digital flexible ureteroscope was released in the United States in January 2016, offering an improved image resolution, new scope performance characteristics with every case, and no need for sterilization and repair. Preliminary data from our center has demonstrated that disposable scopes shorten operative time by 25% compared to reusable fiberoptic scope and are associated with a 2/3 reduction in procedural complication rate. Therefore, treatment with disposable scopes may be more effective for patients and facilitate cost management within the hospital.

Here, we propose a three-armed, prospective randomized study, comparing treatment outcomes between disposable digital, reusable fiberoptic, and reusable digital flexible ureteroscopes.

Description:

This is a single center, prospective, randomized controlled pragmatic clinical trial designed to compare between disposable, reusable fiberoptic, and reusable digital ureteroscopes in upper urinary tract stone treatment efficacy. Three hundred subjects with kidney and/or ureteral stones are planned to recruit for the study. All subjects will be computer sequence-randomized into having their ureteroscopic treatment performed with a disposable (LithoVue™), reusable fiberoptic (URF-P6™), or reusable digital (URF-V2™) flexible ureteroscope. Patient's demographics, physical, laboratory, and image findings will be collected before surgery. These clinical data are already being collected as part of an ongoing registry study. Perioperative timing as well as operator's satisfaction and fatigue and need for a second ureteroscope during the case will be recorded during the treatment course. Other clinical data will be collected at days 7, 30, 90, 180 after surgery. The condition of the used ureteroscopes will be tracked and recorded to confirm the repair rate.

Screening data will be reviewed to determine subject eligibility. Subjects who meet all inclusion criteria and none of the exclusion criteria will be entered into the study.

The following surgical treatment will be used similarly for all three randomized arms and represents standard of case therapy:

Ureteroscopic stone removal Under general anesthesia, the patient is placed in the lithotomy position. All procedures are performed under direct videoscopic and fluoroscopic guidance. Fluoroscopic screening is utilized using a mobile multidirectional C-arm fluoroscopy unit. Initially, a safety guide-wire is placed into the renal pelvis, followed by a ureteral access sheath as needed to maintain low intra-renal pressure and to facilitate the procedures. Using a flexible ureteroscope, renal or ureteral stones are identified and fragmented with a holmium YAG laser. Basket extraction of residual fragments is done until visual complete clearance of stone fragments is achieved.

After ureteroscopy is done and stone clearance is achieved, a ureteral stent is placed at the end of the procedure to drain the kidney for 2-21 days if it is clinically indicated.

The total duration of the study is expected to be one year for subject recruitment and one year and six months for final subject follow-up.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 180
• Est. completion date: September 2016
• Est. primary completion date: September 2016
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 80 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Male or female = 18 years of age at their first clinical visit.

2. Patients with either unilateral or bilateral upper urinary tract stone of any size and location, treatable by flexible ureteroscopy, diagnosed by preoperative ultrasound, computed tomography or plain radiographic imaging

3. Patients being able and willing to provide consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Serious illness likely to cause death within the next 5 years, so as to exclude significant metabolic derangements that might lead to adverse surgical outcome.

2. Pregnancy.

3. Staged ureteroscopic procedure.

4. Antegrade flexible ureteroscopy.

5. Dual procedures (ureteroscopy concurrently performed with other operations).

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Calculi
• Kidney Calculi
• Nephrolithiasis
• Ureter Calculi

Intervention

Device:
• reusable fiberoptic ureteroscope
We will use reusable fiberoptic ureteroscopes for the treatment of kidney and ureter stones.
• disposable digital ureteroscope
We will use disposable digital ureteroscopes for the treatment of kidney and ureter stones.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	University of California, San Francisco	San Francisco	California

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of California, San Francisco

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

References & Publications (12)

Butticè S, Sener TE, Netsch C, Emiliani E, Pappalardo R, Magno C. LithoVue™: A new single-use digital flexible ureteroscope. Cent European J Urol. 2016;69(3):302-305. Epub 2016 Aug 26. — View Citation

Carey RI, Martin CJ, Knego JR. Prospective evaluation of refurbished flexible ureteroscope durability seen in a large public tertiary care center with multiple surgeons. Urology. 2014 Jul;84(1):42-5. doi: 10.1016/j.urology.2014.01.022. Epub 2014 May 14. — View Citation

de la Rosette J, Denstedt J, Geavlete P, Keeley F, Matsuda T, Pearle M, Preminger G, Traxer O; CROES URS Study Group. The clinical research office of the endourological society ureteroscopy global study: indications, complications, and outcomes in 11,885 patients. J Endourol. 2014 Feb;28(2):131-9. doi: 10.1089/end.2013.0436. Epub 2013 Dec 17. — View Citation

Doizi S, Kamphuis G, Giusti G, Andreassen KH, Knoll T, Osther PJ, Scoffone C, Pérez-Fentes D, Proietti S, Wiseman O, de la Rosette J, Traxer O. First clinical evaluation of a new single-use flexible ureteroscope (LithoVue™): a European prospective multicentric feasibility study. World J Urol. 2017 May;35(5):809-818. doi: 10.1007/s00345-016-1936-x. Epub 2016 Sep 26. — View Citation

Geavlete P, Multescu R, Geavlete B. Pushing the boundaries of ureteroscopy: current status and future perspectives. Nat Rev Urol. 2014 Jul;11(7):373-82. doi: 10.1038/nrurol.2014.118. Epub 2014 Jun 3. Review. — View Citation

Healy KA, Pak RW, Cleary RC, Colon-Herdman A, Bagley DH. Hand problems among endourologists. J Endourol. 2011 Dec;25(12):1915-20. doi: 10.1089/end.2011.0128. Epub 2011 Oct 17. — View Citation

Karaolides T, Bach C, Kachrilas S, Goyal A, Masood J, Buchholz N. Improving the durability of digital flexible ureteroscopes. Urology. 2013 Apr;81(4):717-22. doi: 10.1016/j.urology.2013.01.016. Epub 2013 Mar 7. — View Citation

Martin CJ, McAdams SB, Abdul-Muhsin H, Lim VM, Nunez-Nateras R, Tyson MD, Humphreys MR. The Economic Implications of a Reusable Flexible Digital Ureteroscope: A Cost-Benefit Analysis. J Urol. 2017 Mar;197(3 Pt 1):730-735. doi: 10.1016/j.juro.2016.09.085. Epub 2016 Sep 28. — View Citation

Multescu R, Geavlete B, Geavlete P. A new era: performance and limitations of the latest models of flexible ureteroscopes. Urology. 2013 Dec;82(6):1236-9. doi: 10.1016/j.urology.2013.07.022. Epub 2013 Aug 28. — View Citation

Somani BK, Al-Qahtani SM, de Medina SD, Traxer O. Outcomes of flexible ureterorenoscopy and laser fragmentation for renal stones: comparison between digital and conventional ureteroscope. Urology. 2013 Nov;82(5):1017-9. doi: 10.1016/j.urology.2013.07.017. Epub 2013 Aug 31. — View Citation

Tosoian JJ, Ludwig W, Sopko N, Mullins JK, Matlaga BR. The effect of repair costs on the profitability of a ureteroscopy program. J Endourol. 2015 Apr;29(4):406-9. doi: 10.1089/end.2014.0435. Epub 2014 Nov 7. — View Citation

Usawachintachit M, Isaacson DS, Taguchi K, Tzou DT, Hsi RS, Sherer BA, Stoller ML, Chi T. A Prospective Case-Control Study Comparing LithoVue, a Single-Use, Flexible Disposable Ureteroscope, with Flexible, Reusable Fiber-Optic Ureteroscopes. J Endourol. 2 — View Citation

* Note: There are 12 references in all — Click here to view all references

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Overall Procedure Time		at the surgery day, this will be a duration that each ureteroscopy is performed for a patient, assessed between 10 and 120 minutes
Secondary	Number of Participants That Are Stone Free	this will be determined by either CT, US, or KUB	three month after surgery
Secondary	Number of Participants With Complications		from during the surgery to three months after the surgery