[Ureteroscopy under local anesthesia with or without intravenous analgesia]

We report our experience on performing ureteroscopic procedures using local anaesthesia with or without intravenous analgesia. During a two year period 334 ureteroscopic procedures were performed in our hospital. 159 of them were begun but only 138 completed without the use of general or regional anaesthesia. In 9 patients ureteroscopy was performed with lindocaine jelly in the urethra only, and in 129 with additional intravenous analgesia Fentanyl, a synthetic morphine derivative, was used for intravenous analgesia. Ureteroscopy was performed for stone fragmentation or extraction in 119 patients for taking away a double J catheter which showed migration into ureter in 8 and for diagnostic purposes in 11. Ureteric lesions were observed in 7 patients (5%). The findings suggest that ureteroscopy when performed without general or regional anaesthesia does not increase the risk of complications or compromise the results of treatment.