Clinical Significance of Stone Cultures for Patients Undergoing Transurethral Lithotripsy

This study aimed to evaluate the concordance of the microbiologic findings of preoperative urine cultures and intraoperative stone cultures in patients undergoing transurethral lithotripsy (TUL). A total of 164 patients treated with TUL for whom preoperative urine cultures and intraoperative stone cultures were performed were included in this study. The preoperative urine cultures were positive in 57 patients (34.8%) and the stone cultures were positive in 58 patients (35.4%). Enterococcus faecalis was the most common organism detected in the intraoperative stone cultures (22. 9%). The concordance rate between the preoperative urine cultures and intraoperative stone cultures was 45.6%. Eleven patients (6.7%) developed a fever of >38.5°C postoperatively. Among the 11 patients, 9 patients showed positive preoperative urine cultures and 10 patients showed positive stone cultures. The results of the urine culture performed when the patient had a fever of 38.5°C or higher showed 54.5% consistency with the results of the preoperative urine culture or stone culture. Although the results of the preoperative urine cultures and intraoperative stone cultures may not be highly consistent, these cultures should be actively performed because they provide useful information regarding postoperative infections