Opinion
Video
Thomas Mueller, MD, highlights the CVAC device for kidney stone management
Author(s):
Key Takeaways
- CVAC device uses continuous irrigation and aspiration to improve kidney stone removal outcomes.
- Traditional kidney stone surgeries have seen limited technological advancements beyond scope sizes and optics.
“I think that it is upon us as urologists to try to start to embrace this clinical accomplishment, and that being trying to make our patients as stone free as possible,” says Tom Mueller, MD.
In this video, Thomas Mueller, MD, shares key points from the session, “SURE (Steerable Ureteroscopic Renal Evacuation) procedure for the treatment and elimination of kidney stones,” which was presented at the 2024 LUGPA Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois. Mueller is a urologist at New Jersey Urology and a program director at Thomas Jefferson University.
Video Transcript:
CVAC is a novel ureteroscopic device that uses continuous irrigation as well as aspiration in order to try to remove kidney stones. Kidney stone surgery, although we've been doing it for a long time, has really been lacking any sort of advancements in its technologies, aside from sizes of scopes, disposable scopes, types of optics, laser fibers, etc. But we have always missed the main goal. The main goal is to try to make our patients as stone free as possible. Making our patients as stone free as possible is what's going to minimize their risk for any sort of complications. For any given ureteroscopic case, the likelihood of post-operative complications is somewhere between 20% and 44% which is going to comprise readmission rates, urinary tract infections, re-operations, re-surgeries, etc. I think that it is upon us as urologists to try to start to embrace this clinical accomplishment, and that being trying to make our patients as stone free as possible. The CVAC is really the first device that's taken some sort of strides in accomplishing that task.
This transcript was AI generated and edited by human editors for clarity.
