[Trends in upper urinary tract reconstruction surgery over a decade based on a multi-center database].

Objective: To study the trend of surgical type, surgical procedure and etiological distribution of upper urinary tract repair in recent 10 years.

Methods: The preoperative and perioperative variables and follow-up data of upper urinary tract reconstruction surgery in RECUTTER (Reconstruction of Urinary Tract: Technology, Epidemiology and Result) database from 2010 to 2021 were searched, collected and analyzed. The surgical type, surgical procedure, duration of hospitalization, time of operation, incidence of short-term complications, and proportion of the patients undergoing reoperations were compared between the two groups of 2010-2017 period and 2018-2021 period.

Results: A total of 1 072 patients were included in the RECUTTER database. Congenital factors and iatrogenic injuries were the main causes of upper urinary tract repair. Among them, 129 (12.0%) patients had open operation, 403 (37.6%) patients had laparoscopic surgery, 322 (30.0%) patients had robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery and 218 (20.3%) patients had endourological procedure. In the last decade, the total number of surgeries showed a noticeable increasing annual trend and the proportion of robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery in 2018-2021 was significantly higher than that in 2010-2017 ( < 0.001). The 1 072 patients included 124 (11.6%) cases of ileal ureter replacements, 440 (41.1%) cases of pyeloplasty, 229 (21.4%) cases of balloon dilation, 109 (10.2%) cases of ureteral reimplantation, 49 (4.6%) cases of boari flap-Psoas hitch surgery, 60 (5.6%) cases of uretero-ureteral anastomosis, 61 (5.7%) cases of lingual mucosal onlay graft ureteroplasty or appendiceal onlay flap ureteroplasty. Pyeloplasty and balloon dilatation had been the main types of surgery, while the proportion of lingual mucosal onlay graft ureteroplasty plus appendiceal onlay flap ureteroplasty had increased significantly in recent years ( < 0.05). In addition, the time of operation was significantly increased ( < 0.05) after 2018, which was considered to be related to the sharp increase in the proportion of robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery. We found that minimally invasive surgery (endourological procedure and robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery) as an independent risk factor (=0.050, =0.472) could reduce the incidence of short-term post-operative complications.

Conclusion: We have justified the value of the RECUTTER database, created by the Institute of Urology, Peking University in data support for clinical research work, and provided valuable experience for the construction of other multi-center databases at home and abroad. In recent 10 years, we have observed that, in upper urinary tract reconstruction surgery, the surgery type tends to be minimally invasive and the surgery procedure tends to be complicated, suggesting the superiority of robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery.