[Treatment of upper urinary calculi with the PCNL technique (Experience of 20 years)]

To sum up experience of 20 years for treating upper urinary calculi with percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) at our institute and assess the safety, feasibility and superiority of the technique.

We retrospectively investigated 4,014 patients suffering from upper urinary calculi, who were treated with PCNL of 4,014 cases, traditional PCNL was performed in 358, two stage "mini perc" technique in 520 and minimally invasive PCNL in 3,136.

The success rates were 90%, 95% and 98%, the stone free rates were 82%, 86% and 91%. Major complications rates were 5.3%, 1.2% and 0.5%, respectively,with single tract in 3,027 cases and multiple tracts in 987 cases. A total of 5,571 PCNLs were performed in 4,014 patients.

By improvement and innovation of this technique, percutaneous nephrolithotomy can reach the high success rate and stone free rate, with less morbidity and wide clinical indications.