MINI Percutan (kidney stone treatment)

Percutaneous nephrolithotomy or PNL is an endoscopic operation in order to take out medium or large sized kidney stones (stones 2 cm or over). For the operation, a 8-9 mm. cut is made on the patient's back, and an optical instrument called nephroscope is passed into the kidney. The stone in the kidney is broken into pieces. These pieces are taken out from the same hole. 

Mini Percutanous Nephrolithotomy (Mini PNL) has been popular in the recent years. The procedure is identical to the standard PNL. It aims to work with further miniaturized nephroscope and further miniaturized tools. In stones between 1-2.5 cm, it has been reported that it has nearly the same success rates as the standard PNL. However, in larger stones, it prolongs operative time,it increases the complication rates, hence, it is not preferred. It is considered to be advantageous as it has a shorter recovery time than the standard PNL. In our practice we begin the operation with Mini PNL in stones smaller than 2.5 cm and change to standart PNL if operation time exceeds normal limits.