To examine the safety and effectiveness of placing ureteral stents in an office-based setting vs in the operating room (OR).

A retrospective chart review was performed to examine outcomes, specifically complication rate, unanticipated hospitalizations, and stent failures, when patients received JJ stents in the clinic procedure suite, using local analgesia and/or nitrous oxide gas analgesia, compared to patients who had ureteral stents placed in the OR, typically with general anesthesia. Additionally, multivariable analysis was performed to determine predictors of complications.

Around 565 procedures were performed in the clinic and 179 were performed in the OR. The complication rate for the clinic group was 4.1%, compared to 7.8% in the OR group. Unplanned admissions to the hospital occurred after 3.0% of clinic procedures and 9.5% of OR procedures. Stent placements failed in 1.1% of clinic procedures and 0.56% of OR procedures. Clinic procedure time was 10 minutes vs 12 minutes in the OR (P <0.01). Clinic vs OR setting was not predictive of complications (P = 0.99). We did not identify factors that impacted complication rate in ureteral stent placement in the clinic vs OR setting. Notably, the procedure time for a clinic stent placement was significantly shorter than the OR stent placement.

This study demonstrates excellent outcomes with a novel approach to a standard procedure, with shorter procedure time and no difference in complication rates.