A huge left Staghorn kidney, a case report of inevitable open surgery: a case report

Urolithiasis is a very common problem, especially in industrialized societies. Extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy, percutaneous nephrolithotomy, and transureteral lithotripsy are effective less invasive treatments of renal and ureteral stones. Open stone surgery is used less commonly due to its invasiveness and availability of above mentioned techniques. We introduce a case, that due to heavy and complex stone burden and increased chance of failure of percutaneous nephrolithotomy, Open stone surgery is performed for stone removal.

The patient is a 55-years-old Iranian patient that referred to urology department due to a large left Staghorn kidney. After full evaluation and due to extensive spread of stone horns to the even peripheral calyces, open stone surgery performed successfully, that postoperative dynamic renal studies revealed, near normal functional left kidney.

In spite of wonderful advances in endourologic stone surgery, open stone surgery still has its role, but it must be done in experienced centers with good surgical expertise to retain good and acceptable functional kidney, postoperatively.