Introduction & Objectives:
\nUreteric stents are commonly inserted before or after ureteroscopy (URS) for kidney stone disease (KSD) but can cause pain and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), leading to emergency department (ED) attendance and unplanned admissions. Baseline audit identified avoidable stent-related attendance, often following discharge without targeted medication or written information. This quality improvement project aimed to reduce stent-related attendances and admission through improved patient education and standardised discharge medication.<\/p>\n
Materials and methods:
\nAdult patients undergoing URS and laser lithotripsy with ureteric stent insertion for KSD at a community hospital were reviewed. The study was registered with the hospital Clinical Effectiveness and Audit department (audit number 0535). Baseline data were collected from March to September 2025. Implementations included a patient information leaflet, discharge guide for clinicians, and standardised prescribing for stent-related symptoms, including analgesia, alpha-blocker, and anticholinergic. Re-audit was performed prospectively from October 2025 to April 2026. Outcomes included complications, ED attendance and re-admission. <\/p>\n
Results:
\nIn the baseline cohort, 54 patients were discharged with a ureteric stent. Only 25.9% received analgesia or medications for stent symptoms. ED attendance was 16.6% and re-admission was 20.4%. Following implementation, 42 consecutive patients stented for KSD treatment were included. All patients received a patient information leaflet and 92.9% were discharged with medication for stent symptoms. ED attendance reduced from 16.6% to 4.8%. No re-admissions occurred in the re-audit cohort, compared with 20.4% at baseline. Post-operative complications, including pain and LUTS, were reduced from 27.7% to 9.5%. <\/p>\n
Conclusions:
\nA simple, low-cost intervention combining patient education and medication optimisation was associated with reduced ED visits and admissions after ureteric stenting for KSD. The absence of re-admissions in the re-audit cohort suggests that standardised stent-symptom management may reduce avoidable healthcare utilisation and improve patient experience. Further work should assess sustainability across larger cohorts and evaluate patient-reported outcomes.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Introduction & Objectives: Ureteric stents are commonly inserted before or after ureteroscopy (URS) for kidney stone disease (KSD) but can cause pain and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), leading to emergency department (ED) attendance and unplanned admissions. Baseline audit identified … read more<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":325,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"portfolio-type":[19],"portfolio-tag":[],"class_list":["post-324","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio-type-unmoderated-posters"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ice26.eposter.civired.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ice26.eposter.civired.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ice26.eposter.civired.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ice26.eposter.civired.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ice26.eposter.civired.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ice26.eposter.civired.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"portfolio-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ice26.eposter.civired.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio-type?post=324"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ice26.eposter.civired.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio-tag?post=324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}