Association between time to lithotripsy and stone-free rate in patients with ureteral stones undergoing shock wave lithotripsy

Early shock wave lithotripsy is associated with higher stone-free rate compared to delayed treatment of ureteral stones, but may constitute overtreatment because ureteral stones can pass spontaneously. We studied the association between time to treatment and stone-free rate in patients with ureteral stones to determine optimal shock wave lithotripsy timing. We retrospectively analyzed 537 patients undergoing shock wave lithotripsy for ureteral stones. Patients were divided into five groups according to time from onset of symptoms to lithotripsy—urgent (0–3 days), early (4–30 days), late (31–60 days), long-delayed lithotripsy (≥ 61 days), and asymptomatic. Stone-free rates were compared among groups. Mean age and stone size were 55.6 ± 13.1 years and 7.48 ± 3.29 mm, respectively. Mean number of shock wave lithotripsy sessions and stone-free rate were 1.37 and 91.6%, respectively, in the overall population. Stone-free rates were 95.2%, 96.8%, 91.3%, 86.3%, and 82.7% in urgent, early, late, long-delayed lithotripsy, and asymptomatic groups, respectively. Long-delayed lithotripsy and asymptomatic groups had significantly more lithotripsy sessions and lower stone-free rate, compared to urgent and early lithotripsy groups. In multivariate analysis, time to lithotripsy [long-delayed lithotripsy (odds ratio: 0.273, p = 0.004) and asymptomatic nature (odds ratio: 0.236, p = 0.002)] and age (odds ratio: 0.959, p = 0.003) independently affected stone-free rate. In conclusion, time to lithotripsy is a strong predictive factor for stone-free status following shock wave lithotripsy. Urgent shock wave lithotripsy did not improve stone-free rate if performed within 1 month. However, time to shock wave lithotripsy > 2 months reduced likelihood of stone-free status.