Eswl Shines in Covid Crisis: A Boon for Patients.

Background: When compared to other definitive stone treatments like ureteroscopy (URS) and percutaneous nephrolithotomy, ESWLis the only interventional option that is non-invasive, making it crucial in the management of urinary tract stones. Yet, due to its non-invasive outpatient nature and ease of performance without anaesthesia, ESWLis still not favoured by many authors as a therapy option for renal pelvic stones of intermediate size. The COVID-19 outbreak encouraged many centres to utilise ESWLbecause it spares patients with the infection from general anaesthesia and any potential consequences that could result from it. The optimization of ESWL requires careful patient selection, committed staff, and posttreatment imaging assessment. Methods: It is a retrospective study in which the patients treated with ESWL in the COVID times (from March 2021 to December 2022) were compared to patients that were treated with mini-PCNLafter the pandemic was controlled. 50 patients in each group were studied and renal stones up to 1.7 cm in size were considered. Results: The re-treatment rate and total number of procedures were significantly higher in the ESWL group. The incidence of complications was significantly higher in the PCNL group. The mean hospital stay for PCNL was significantly higher than ESWL. The mean total cost was significantly higher for PCNL. ESWLwas better tolerated in terms of pain as compared to PCNL. Conclusion: Despite the great suffering caused by COVID, we had once in a generation opportunity to fundamentally re-examine our health care models. With the declaration of the national emergency and restriction on non-essential medical care, our health care was under great strain. Urinary stone disease accounts for a considerable portion of the clinical workload faced by urologists. ESWL had emerged as a blessing in the pandemic by not only providing effective, uncomplicated clearance of renal stones but also by reducing the exposure to health care workers and decreasing the workload on already overburdened anaesthesiologists.