[Percutaneous treatment of calculosis in caliceal diverticulosis: 13-year experience]

We report our experience with the composition and management of caliceal diverticular stones for the past 13 years at our institution. Fourty patients with caliceal diverticular stones were treated percutaneously at Long Island Jewish Medical Center. The size of the diverticula ranged from 1 to 4.8 cm, with a mean size of 2.27 cm. The stone size ranged from 0.2 to 4.5 cm in diameter with an average of 1.7 cm. Twenty patients underwent a metabolic evaluation. Follow-up ranged from 8 months to 140 months with a mean of 72.5 months. We achieved a stone free rate of 95%. All 40 patients were free of pain and infection. The chemical composition of stones was identified in 38 patients. Twelve patients were found to have mainly calcium phosphate stones, 16 mainly calcium oxalate stones, 7 mainly uric acid stones and 3 were found with milk of calcium in their diverticulum. Thirty-five patients had complete resolution of their diverticula with normal urograms. The remaining 5 patients had at least 50% diminution of the diverticulum size. No one of the latter patients was found to have stone recurrence. Metabolic evaluation of the 40 patients showed in the 75% of the cases any metabolic abnormality, an absorptive hypercalciuria type II in two patients (10%), hyperuricosuric hypercalciuria in two cases (10%) and hyperoxaluria in one (5%). Percutaneous management of caliceal diverticular stones is a safe and effective modality compared to the existing alternative procedures reported in the literature.