Is extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy a risk factor for the development of diabetes mellitus? A population-based...

To determine if patients treated with extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy (ESWL) are at a greater risk of developing diabetes mellitus (DM) than those treated with ureteroscopy (URS).

A retrospective population-based cohort study was performed of all ESWL and URS stone treatments done in Ontario between January 1994 and March 2014, utilising linked encoded healthcare databases. The primary outcome was the development of DM >90 days after treatment. The Kaplan-Meier method was used for unadjusted survival analysis and multivariable analysis with Cox proportional hazards regression was used to assess the risk of DM between the ESWL and URS groups whilst controlling for age, gender, region of residence, income quintile, year of treatment, and comorbidity index. A sensitivity analysis with a subset of ESWL patients treated for left renal or proximal ureteric stones was completed.

We identified 106 963 patients who underwent ESWL or URS over the study period with a median follow-up of 6.6 years (ESWL 8.5 years, URS 5.6 years). Unadjusted survival analysis showed an increased risk of developing DM in the ESWL group compared to the URS group (P < 0.001); however, multivariable analysis showed no increased risk of DM in the ESWL cohort (hazard ratio [HR] 0.97, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.91-1.02; P = 0.25). Similarly, sensitivity analysis showed no increased risk of DM in the left renal/proximal ureteric stone ESWL cohort compared to the URS cohort (HR 1.04, 95% CI 0.96-1.13; P = 0.35).

Our population-based cohort study demonstrated no increased risk of DM in patients undergoing ESWL compared to URS.