Publications by authors named "Almeras C"

Objectives: The French 2022 Urolithiasis(CLAFU) Guidelineswere recently released. We aimed to evaluate the impact and diffusion of these CLAFU guidelines among the French Urologists.

Methods: French certified and in-training Urologists were invited to participate in an online survey between April and May 2024, including 18 questions assessing demographics, practice trends, awareness of the new guidelines, their dissemination and impact on daily practice.

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RENAL COLIC MANAGEMENT. Renal colic is a common reason for consultation or emergency room visit. In most of the cases, it is caused by the migration of a urinary calculus and the resulting ureteral obstruction.

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Article Synopsis
  • Urosepsis is a common complication following flexible ureterorenoscopy (F-URS), occurring in up to 4.3% of cases and accounting for significant healthcare costs.
  • A study involving 486 F-URS procedures at eleven French centers evaluated clinical factors that increase the risk of urosepsis, identifying key risk indicators.
  • Results indicated that a type IV calculus (carbapatite or struvite), along with factors like coronary insufficiency and larger stone size, significantly increase the risk of post-operative urosepsis, emphasizing the need for enhanced monitoring in these cases.
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Article Synopsis
  • The study evaluated the relationship between abnormalities in the renal papilla observed during endoscopy and Hounsfield density on CT scans in patients treated with flexible ureteroscopic surgery for kidney stones.
  • Out of 159 patients, 131 were analyzed, revealing that high renal papilla Hounsfield density (≥ 43 HU) was more common in younger patients and those with insufficient diuresis.
  • No significant correlation was found between high Hounsfield density and the endoscopic papillary abnormalities, indicating that high Hounsfield density mainly reflects insufficient diuresis rather than indicating papillary abnormalities.
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Purpose: To assess the patient experience and satisfaction after the implementation in routine of a personalized, digital programme before and after same-day discharge (SDD) robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP).

Methods: The study is a pre/post-interventional, multi-surgeon, unicentre, prospective study. All consecutive patients undergoing SDD RARP were included during a 6-month period.

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Introduction: The functional results of radical prostatectomy are a crucial issue for patients to resume fulfilling sexuality. We assessed the feasibility of a care pathway dedicated to sexual rehabilitation in order to improve information, screening of risk situations and the implementation of therapeutic measures.

Methods: From January to May 2023, sexually active patients under 75 years of age undergoing prostatectomy for cancer were offered the opportunity to participate in two sexual rehabilitation sessions (REHAB) led by a nurse-urologist pair.

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Background: Recent guidelines favor transperineal (TP) prostate biopsies over the transrectal (TR) approach due to a reduced sepsis risk. Yet, evidence from controlled trial comparing both approaches within the MRI-targeted pathway for significant prostate cancer (PCa) detection is lacking.

Objective: To compare the significant PCa detection rate between magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-targeted TR and TP approaches in biopsy-naïve patients.

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Introduction: Radical cystectomy (RC) remains a surgery with important morbidity despite technical advances. Our aim was to determine the impact on outcomes and costs of robot-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC) with full intracorporeal diversion.

Material And Methods: We retrospectively included 196 consecutive patients undergone RC for bladder cancer between 2017 and 2022.

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The morphological-compositional analysis of urinary stones allows distinguishing schematically several situations: dietary, digestive, metabolic/hormonal, infectious and genetic problems. Blood and urine testing are recommended in the first instance to identify risk factors of urinary stone disease in order to avoid recurrence or progression. The other objective is to detect a potential underlying pathology associated with high risk of urinary stone disease (e.

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The spontaneous elimination rate of ureteral stones decreases with their size, but also in function of their location. The objectives of stone surveillance are to detect the occurrence of a complication (e.g.

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The main objectives of interventional stone treatment are stone removal, symptom elimination, and kidney function preservation. After treatment of kidney stones (extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy [ESWL], or endoscopy), fragments may remain in the kidney, either deliberately left in place or due to treatment failure (i.e.

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Postural therapy is a postural procedure to fight against the gravity phenomenon responsible for the non-elimination of lower calyceal stones. It allows improving or accelerating their expulsion and it increases the stone-free rate. This procedure associates forced diuresis, postural inversion, and lumbar percussion.

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It has been shown that the relative risk of cancer is higher in patients with urinary stone disease, probably due to the repeated radiological exams and procedures under fluoroscopic guidance. Reducing the radiation doses delivered to the patient also decreases the doses delivered to the operators and their assistants. The doses delivered during endoscopic procedures decrease with the urologist's experience.

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Chronic kidney disease, diabetes and hypertension are risk factors of kidney function impairment. The relative risk of kidney failure is 1.52 in patients with urinary stone disease.

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The primary objective of the combined approach is to limit the number of percutaneous access tracts for the treatment of staghorn, or complex kidney stones by simultaneous percutaneous antegrade and retrograde ureteroscopy. The other indication is the simultaneous presence of several kidney and ureteral stones or of an impacted pelvic stone. The combination of the two techniques may increase the stone-free rate and decrease the retreatment rate of complex stones compared with percutaneous nephrolithotomy alone.

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Only few hundred interventions are performed in France each year to remove upper urinary tract stones using a laparoscopic/robotic transperitoneal or retroperitoneal approach. These interventions are proposed to patients with large (>20mm) and complex stones, sometimes after failure of endoscopic techniques or in the presence of malformations that can be treated at the same time. The major interest of these interventions is the possibility to remove the whole stone without prior fragmentation.

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Percutaneous nephrolithotomy (Labate et al.) is the standard procedure for the treatment of large (≥2cm) kidney stones. The patient can be in prone or modified supine position.

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Technical advances, including miniaturization, have improved the deflection and optical performance of the ureteroscopes, and the availability of dedicated disposable devices have led to their increasing use for kidney and ureteral stone management. Ureterorenoscopy brings diagnostic evidence through the endoscopic description of stones and renal papillary abnormalities. Currently, intracorporeal lithotripsy during ureterorenoscopy is based on laser sources.

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Endocorporeal lithotripsy has progressed thanks to the development of lasers. Two laser sources are currently available: Holmium:YAG (Ho:YAG) and more recently Thulium Fiber Laser (TFL). The settings generally used are dusting, fragmentation, and "pop-corning".

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Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) is a minimally invasive technique for the fragmentation of urinary tract stones using shock waves under fluoroscopic and/or ultrasound guidance. ESWL results depend on the indication (stone size/composition, clinical context) and also on how it is performed. The stone structure, nature and density (Hounsfield units; evaluated by CT without contrast agent) influence the fragmentation achieved by ESWL.

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The acute situation, caused by an obstructive stone, is defined by a renal colic that may be uncomplicated, complicated, or at risk in specific conditions. Its management may be medical or require interventional treatment by extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy, endoscopic removal, or ureteroscopy. METHODOLOGY: These recommendations were developed using two methods, the Clinical Practice Recommendations (CPR) and the ADAPTE method, in function of whether the question was considered in the European Association of Urology (EAU) recommendations (https://uroweb.

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The choice of imaging modality is guided by the clinical presentation and the context (acute or not). Although ultrasound is safe (no radiation) and easily available, non-contrast-enhanced CT has become the gold standard in the diagnostic strategy for patients with acute flank pain because of its sensitivity (93.1%) and specificity (96.

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Endoscopic observation is performed during treatments by flexible ureteroscopy to differentiate in situ between renal papillary abnormalities and stones based on their concordance with Daudon's morphological/composition descriptions adapted to endoscopy. These intraoperative visual analyses are now an integral part of the urinary stone disease diagnostic approach in addition to the morphological/structural and spectrophotometric analysis that remains the reference exam, but that loses information on the stone component representativeness due to the development of in situ laser lithotripsy. These are the first practical recommendations on the endoscopic description of renal papillae and stones.

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The incidence of urinary lithiasis is rising steadily in industrialized countries, and its prevalence in the general population of France is estimated at 10%. Renal colic accounts for 1-2% of emergency department consultations. At a time when the new LASER stone fragmentation techniques available to urologists will lead to ever finer in situ pulverization of stones, the exact identification of the compounds that form the stone is essential for etiological diagnosis.

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Prehabilitation programs play a key role in optimizing patient experiences and outcomes after surgery. However, there are few data on robot-assisted radical prostatectomy, and prehabilitation programs may be challenging to launch and maintain over time for every patient. Here we report our 5-yr experience of an on-site prehabilitation program and its impact on patient and hospital outcomes.

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