Practice patterns and outcomes of urgent versus elective ureteroscopy in a statewide surgical collaborative.

Purpose: Urgent indications for nephrolithiasis treatment include obstruction with intractable pain or renal impairment without untreated infection. Patients and hospitals may benefit from urgent primary ureteroscopy. We aimed to examine variation in urgent ureteroscopy utilization and associated outcomes.

Ureteral Stent Placement following Ureteroscopy Increases Emergency Department Visits in a Statewide Surgical Collaborative.

Purpose: Ureteral stents are commonly placed after ureteroscopy. Although studies indicate that stents are associated with patient discomfort, their impact on downstream health services use is unclear. We examined patterns of stent utilization in Michigan and their association with unplanned health care encounters.

Use of medications or devices for erectile dysfunction among long-term prostate cancer treatment survivors: potential influence of sexual motivation and/or indifference.

Objectives: To evaluate the potential association between sexual motivation and patterns of erectile dysfunction (ED) therapy among a large cohort of localized prostate cancer treatment survivors.

Methods: The use of medications and devices to improve erections and sexual health-related quality of life (HRQOL) were evaluated using a mailed Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite survey administered to 896 men 4 to 8 years after brachytherapy, three-dimensional conformal external beam radiotherapy (3D-CRT), or radical prostatectomy and 112 control men. The responding participants (73% of those surveyed) were classified by prostate cancer treatment, sexual motivation, and ED therapy use.

Long-term outcomes among localized prostate cancer survivors: health-related quality-of-life changes after radical prostatectomy, external radiation, and brachytherapy.

Purpose: We sought to elucidate long-term changes in health-related quality-of-life (HRQOL) outcomes by prospectively re-evaluating a well-characterized cohort of prostate cancer (PC) survivors 4 to 8 years after primary treatment.

Patients And Methods: Patients who had been evaluated previously at a median of 2.6 years after radical prostatectomy (RP), external radiation (three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy [3-D CRT]), or brachytherapy (BT) were recontacted at a median of 6.