The regular use of calcium channel blockers before flexible URS appears to facilitate primary UAS insertion: a retrospective study in a single center

Purpose To evaluate the effect of regular use of CCB before flexible URS for successful primary UAS insertion. Materials and methods We retrospectively analyzed 209 patients who underwent flexible ureteroscopy (URS) for upper urinary tract calculi between Jan 2021 and Dec 2021. Patients were divided into two groups based on whether calcium channel blockers (CCB) were used ( n = 72) or not ( n = 137). The following parameters were collected: age, sex, height and weight, BMI, stone location, stone burden, number of stones, operation time, hospital stay, hospital readmission, post-operative fever, post-operative SIRS rate, Clavien–Dindo grade, hospitalization costs, successful primary UAS insertion. We compared the two groups using Student’s t test, Mann–Whitney U test and χ 2 test for quantitative and categorical variables, respectively. A logistic regression model was used to identify predictive factors of UAS successful primary insertion. Results Compared with the non-CCB group, the CCB group had a higher successful primary UAS insertion rate (97.2% vs.85.4%, p = 0.008), and a lower hospital readmission rate (2.8% vs.12.4%, p = 0.021). In multivariate analyses, the regular use of CCB was the only predictive factor of successful primary UAS insertion rate (OR 6.32, 95% CI 1.41–28.29, p = 0.016). Conclusion The regular use of calcium channel blockers (CCB) before flexible URS appears to facilitate ureteral access sheaths (UAS) primary insertion.