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Kate H. Kraft, MD, discusses pre-op tamsulosin use in pediatric patients undergoing URS
"When we compared the 2 groups, those that received tamsulosin and those that did not, we did find a significant difference with regard to success rates," says Kate H. Kraft, MD, MHPE, FACS, FAAP. .
Use of preoperative tamsulosin (Flomax) in pediatric patients undergoing ureteroscopy appears to facilitate ureteroscopic access in this patient population, according to a recent study.1
In an interview with Urology Times®, senior author Kate H. Kraft, MD, MHPE, FACS, FAAP, described the background for the study.
“This study has been a long time in the making. Essentially, it was motivated by literature that came out in 2018 in adult urology that showed that tamsulosin potentially could help ureteral access. And so I thought, 1 unique problem that we have in pediatric urology is that we're operating on smaller urinary tracts, but we use the same equipment that our adult urologists use as well when it comes to flexible ureteroscopy. So I wondered if maybe there was a good way to help facilitate access,” said Kraft, chief of Pediatric Urology, Mark C. McQuiggan, MD, and Carolyn A. McQuiggan Research Professor, and professor of urology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Kraft and her coauthors conducted a multi-institutional retrospective review that included a total of 382 patients, “which is a pretty large number for pediatric urology study,” Kraft noted.
“Essentially, when we compared the 2 groups, those that received tamsulosin and those that did not, we did find a significant difference with regard to success rates. We ultimately found that those that took tamsulosin had an 87% chance of being able to have their ureteroscopy successfully performed, which is essentially an 11% increase compared to those that had not previously had tamsulosin. We recognize that there are a lot of limitations with a retrospective study, but this is a great next step in having the conversation about, is giving tamsulosin to our pediatric patients ahead of ureteroscopy going to make a clinical difference, and I think it potentially could,” Kraft reported.
REFERENCE
1. Meyer KM, Asantey K, Ellison JS, et al. The effect of preoperative tamsulosin on pediatric ureteroscopic access: A multi-institutional experience. Urol Pract. 2025 Feb 5:101097UPJ0000000000000793. doi:10.1097/UPJ.0000000000000793
