Association of acute pyelonephritis with double-J ureteral stenting: a nationwide population-based case control study

Abstract

Objective

Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) due to ureteral catheters has been frequently seen. The risk factors of this include both timing and those of the female gender. However, the association of Acute Pyelonephritis (APN) with use of ureteral DJ stents has rarely been investigated.

Materials and Methods: This study enrolled a total of 6,459 patients who were being treated with a ureteral catheter over a 10 year period from the nationwide database of Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Bureau. From these subjects, episodes of APN were found in a total of 500 patients. Additionally, 2,000 patients without APN were randomly enrolled as a control group in order to analyze the associated factors.

Results

The results indicate that the percentage of those with regards gender, age, duration of implantation, ureteral stent type, hypertension, T2DM, presence of urinary tract infection, benign prostate hyperplasia and pregnancy status were significantly statistically higher in APN patients than non-APN patients. APN did not associate with the use of antibiotics, urolithiasis, chronic kidney disease, malignancy, or uric acid stone in patients with a ureteral catheter.

Conclusion: In conclusion, patients with a ureteral catheter associated with APN should be given close attention with regards to the above risk factors. Early removal of the catheter is the best policy for the prevention of APN.

Keywords:

• Ureteral catheter
• acute pyelonephritis
• urinary tract infection

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported in part by the Taiwan Ministry of Health and Welfare Clinical Trial Center [MOHW109-TDU-B-212-114004], and the MOST Clinical Trial Consortium for Stroke [MOST 108-2321-B-039-003-], Tseng-Lien Lin Foundation, Taichung, Taiwan. We also thank China Medical University Hospital for supporting this study [DMR-109-056].