Clinical Evaluation of BackStop in Patients Undergoing Ureteroscopic Lithotripsy

During ureteroscopic treatment for ureteral stones, lithotripsy, irrigation, and manipulation of the stone often pushes stone away into the kidney itself. This phenomenon is called retropulsion, which is defined as clinically significant retrograde migration of stone or stone fragments. Movement of stones retrograde into the renal pelvis could potentially add and complicate the surgery further. Often scopes need to be changed in order to reach the stone, and chasing these stones will add time to the surgery and require more valuable resources. Furthermore, sometimes a second operation will need to be done when these retropulsed fragments could not be all found and cleaned out. A number of devices have been developed to prevent such migration including stone baskets and conical devices. These are wire-based devices which have the potential of injuring the ureter. Because of safety concerns and that there is limited data available on the effectiveness of these devices; these are not widely used by urologists. BackStop has recently been developed as another tool to prevent retropulsion. It is a water soluble gel that is injected proximal to the stone. This creates a physical barrier that prevents stone migration during ureteroscopic lithotripsy for ureteral calculus.