Percutaneous nephrostomy using hospital modified catheters for cost containment.

This paper describes our experience of percutaneous nephrostomy (PCN) using self-fabricated catheters. Our effort is to restrain the cost of this common procedure, and at the same time, deliver results comparable to other studies in the literature. In 152 patients, 175 PCN were performed for various indications using simple tools for "pulling catheters". All nephrostomy catheters were fabricated from commercially available 7.2 F polyethylene catheter material. Our success rate of 96%, major and minor complication rates at 2.3% and 6.3% respectively, compare favourably with the reported series. The variable cost of nephrostomy, in our cases, was less than one-third compared with that using commercially available nephrostomy sets. Use of self-fabricated nephrostomy catheters is a cost-effective way of performing nephrostomy especially in environments where health maintenance resources are scarce, health insurance is not freely available, and patients bear the cost of the treatment. This is particularly relevant to the developing countries where PCN is frequently needed but the nephrostomy sets are not easily available.