Purpose of review: To present the latest evidence related to the impact of increased operative times in retrograde intrarenal surgery and identify possible important factors that can facilitate ureteroscopy procedures.
Recent findings: Ureteroscopy constitutes the mainstay treatment of renal stones and is characterized by a huge variation in techniques and instrumentation. It has been suggested that increased operative times can mitigate the outcomes of the procedures by increasing complication rates. Nevertheless, little is known about the time limits, above which complications are likely to occur. Furthermore, complication rates in different procedure durations have not yet been assessed. Prolonged operative times are linked to increased complication rates in ureteroscopy. Stone complexity, patient risk factors, surgeon experience, bilateral surgery, and instrumentation constitute important factors that can hamper or facilitate a procedure and should be taken into account beforehand. Keeping procedural times below 90 min can dissuade potential predicaments and achieve improved stone-free rates.
Keywords: Complication; Operative time; Procedure time; Retrograde intrarenal surgery; Stone; Ureteroscopy.