BACKGROUND:

there is no consensus on the term “staghorn stone” and the designations “partial” or “complete” do not involve volume criteria. The term “staghorn morphometry” is defined as the distribution of the volumetric burden of a staghorn stone in the collecting system.

OBJECTIVE:

to determine the “stone morphometry” through preoperative tomography study.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

a retrospective, analytic study was conducted that included patients with tomography studies within the time frame of 2012-2016. OsiriX software was used with measurements of: total stone volume (volume calculated with reconstruction of the entire stone image), stone volume in the entry calyx (volume of the stone in the entry calyx), stone volume in the favorable calyx (volume of the stone in the favorable calyx).

RESULTS:

the following overall measurements were observed in the 46 patients included in the study: total stone volume: 2753 ± 1423 mm3 and 56867 ± 26781 mm3 (p < 0.001), stone volume in the entry calyx: 580 ± 474 mm3 and 17586 ± 13150 mm3 (p < 0.001), and stone volume in the favorable calyx: 589 ± 569 mm3 and 17900 ± 13717 mm3 (p < 0.001), in cases with a single tract and in those with more than 2 tracts, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS:

stone morphometry provided the volumetric load of the stone to be treated and was significantly influential in determining the tracts and procedures necessary to achieve a stone-free state in patients with staghorn stones that underwent percutaneous nephrolithotomy in a Mexican hospital population.