Effect of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19), a Nationwide Mass Casualty Disaster on Intensive Care Units: Clinical Outcomes and Associated Cost-of-Care.

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in millions of deaths worldwide and is considered a significant mass-casualty disaster (MCD). The surge of patients and scarcity of resources negatively impacted hospitals, patients and medical practice. We hypothesized ICUs during this MCD had a higher acuity of illness, and subsequently had increased lengths of stay (LOS), complication rates, death rates and costs of care.

Evaluation of a new 240-μm single-use holmium:YAG optical fiber for flexible ureteroscopy.

Background And Purpose: Numerous holmium:yttrium-aluminum-garnet laser fibers are available for flexible ureteroscopy. Performance and durability of fibers can vary widely among different manufacturers and their product lines with differences within a single product line have been reported. We sought to evaluate a newly developed nontapered, single-use 240-μm fiber, Flexiva™ 200 (Boston Scientific, Natick, MA), during clinical use and in a bench-testing model.

Prestenting improves ureteroscopic stone-free rates.

Purpose: Although the use of stents after ureteroscopy has been studied extensively, relatively little has been published about stent placement before complicated ureteroscopic procedures. In this study, we examined our experience with stent placement before ureteroscopic management of renal and ureteral stone disease.

Patients And Methods: A total of 90 patients underwent ureteroscopic surgery on 115 renal units by a single surgeon from 2001 to 2006.