Percutaneous management of upper tract foreign bodies.

Although percutaneous management of calculi has become less frequent, the techniques developed for that purpose are being used to manage patients with more complex upper tract problems. Percutaneous techniques analogous to those used for stone disease were applied in four patients with upper tract foreign bodies (silk suture, balloon catheter or stent fragments) inaccessible to definitive ureteroscopic management. Three patients had associated calculi. In each case, the intraoperative course was uneventful, the postoperative stay was only 4 to 5 days, and the result was an uninfected, unobstructed renal unit. Percutaneous techniques can be successful in the management of the increasingly frequent problem of upper tract foreign bodies and will often represent the treatment of choice.