Anatrophic nephrolithotomy for removal of staghorn or branched renal calculi

Forty anatrophic nephrolithotomies were performed in 38 patients between November, 1965, and December, 1977, to remove staghorn or branched renal calculi. Thirty-six (95 per cent) of the patients' preoperative urine cultures were infected, and postoperatively 35 of the cultures (88 per cent) were sterile. Magnesium ammonium phosphate calculi were present in the majority of patients (67 per cent). In 6 patients (15 per cent) transient nephrocutaneous fistulas developed. Thirty-six of the 40 renal units (90 per cent) had improved or stable intravenous pyelograms postoperatively. The patients had been followed for an average of twenty months (four to one hundred and twelve months). In 6 patients (15 per cent) recurrent renal calculi developed, and 3 patients (8 per cent) had residual calculi during this period.