[Value of posterior vertical lombotomy in the surgical treatment of calculi of the lumbar ureter. Apropos of 42 cases].

Whereas surgery is no longer used for treatment of pyelocaliceal and lower ureter lithiasis, it remains a valid method in lithiasis of lumbar ureter poorly accessible to endoscopy. A direct approach to lumbar (or pelvic) ureter by posterior vertical lombotomy considerably reduces operation time, pain and duration of hospital stay and disability. Results in a series of 42 cases indicate that surgery remains an excellent and perhaps most effective therapy for lumbar ureter calculi, with the condition that the conventional posterolateral lombotomy be abandoned.