Prolonging the life of the flexible ureterorenoscope

The lifespan of medical equipment must be maximised to ensure cost-effectiveness. Flexible ureterorenoscopes have become widely used in the diagnosis and treatment of urolithiasis. They are relatively expensive and current literature shows that they require frequent repair and replacement. We have analysed our data for the number of procedures and repairs required for each new instrument we have used. So far we have used four new flexible ureteroscopes, which have been used for a total of 375 procedures, an average of 94 procedures each. On average each required repair twice. We believe that a few simple precautions taken during use and storage help to maximise the lifespan of the flexible ureterorenoscope and our results would appear to support this.