Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UroToday.com) In this session, Dr. Pengbo Jiang discussed a study conducted to determine how quality of life is affected by recurrent stone events. Urolithiasis is often more than just a one-time acute event, as recurrence is common. Chronic stone formers are believed to have a lower quality of life due to these painful episodes. Using a previously validated Wisconsin Stone Quality of Life questionnaire, they found that the number of stone events does impact quality of life.
The Wisconsin Stone Quality of Life questionnaire is comprised of 28 questions on a Likert scale of 1-5, with a maximal score of 140. These questions encapsulate social functioning, emotional functioning, stone related impact, and vitality. 2,665 total patients were enrolled from 14 different institutions in the United States.
They found that a higher number of stone events were associated with a significant decline in Wisconsin Stone Quality of Life score. Ten stone events were determined to be the cutoff at which quality of life declines most significantly; this was reflected in a decrease in scores in all of the aforementioned domains encapsulated by the questionnaire.
As discussed by Dr. Jiang, this study emphasizes the importance of stone prevention. Patients that have a ureteral stone will likely have an additional episode; thus, follow up and prevention is needed before the decline in quality of life is manifested.
Presented by: Pengbo Jiang, MD, Urologist, University of California, Irvine
Written by Rajiv Karani (Department of Urology, University of California, Irvine) medical writer for UroToday.com. at the 37th World Congress of Endourology (WCE) – October 29th-November 2nd, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates