Patients with positive bacteria stone culture result have no relationship with urinary tract infection following tubeless percutaneous nephrolithotomy

Background: A recent study showed that stone culture was better than bladder urine as predictors of urosepsis following percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL).

Purpose: To compare the relationship and risk factors between stone culture after percutaneous nephrolithotomy.

Materials and Methods: A total of 143 patients underwent tubeless PCNL were included in this study. Between them, 42 patients have positive stone bacteria culture (group I) while the other 101 have negative bacteria culture. We compared the difference and risk of urinary tract infection between two groups.

Results: Compared with the group I has larger stone size (41.8 ± 21.1 vs. 34.9 ± 18.7 mm, p  = 0.057), higher rates of bacteria in the urinary culture (29/13 vs. 55/46, p  = 0.136) and higher rate of staghorn stones (11/31 vs.18/83, p  = 0.182) than the group II, but there is no statistic significant difference. There is no difference among urinary tract infection, location of stones (Right kidney/Left kidney), struvite stone and bacteria in both group. The size of urinary stones larger than 25mm has the higher risk for positive stone bacteria culture (34/8 vs.60/41, p  = 0.001).

Conclusion: There is no significant difference between urinary tract infection and positive stone culture in our study. The size of the urinary stones larger then 25mm has higher incidence of positive stone bacteria culture.