The Effect of Preoperative Tamsulosin on Ureteral Navigation, Operation, and Safety: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Urolithiasis is one of the most common diseases in the world, and at present, ureteroscopy (URS) is the first choice for its treatment. Although the effect is good, there is a risk of insertion failure of ureteroscope. Tamsulosin, as an α-receptor blocker, has the function of relaxing ureteral muscles, and can help stones to be discharged from ureteral orifice. In this study, we aimed to determine the effect of preoperative tamsulosin on ureteral navigation, operation, and safety.

METHODS: This study was conducted and reported according to the meta-analysis extension of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). The PubMed and Embase databases were searched for studies. Data were extracted according to the PRISMA principles. We collected and combined randomized controlled trial and researches in reviews of preoperative tamsulosin to explore the effect of preoperative tamsulosin on ureteral navigation, operation, and safety. A data synthesis was performed using RevMan 5.4.1 software (Cochrane). Heterogeneity was mainly evaluated with I2 tests. Key metrics include: success rate of ureteral navigation, time of URS, stone-free rate, and postoperative symptoms.

RESULT: We summarized and analyzed 6 studies. We noted a statistically significant improvement in the success rate of ureteral navigation (Mantel-Haenszel [M-H], odds ratio [OR]: 3.78, 95% confidence interval [CI]: [2.34, 6.12], p < 0.01) and stone-free rate (M-H, OR: 2.25, 95% CI: [1.16, 4.36], p = 0.02) with tamsulosin preoperatively. At the same time, we also observed that postoperative fever (M-H, OR: 0.37, 95% CI: [0.16, 0.89], p = 0.03) and postoperative analgesia (M-H, OR: 0.21, 95% CI: [0.05, 0.92], p = 0.04) were also reduced because of preoperative tamsulosin.

CONCLUSION: Preoperative tamsulosin can not only increase the one-time success rate of ureteral navigation and the stone-free rate of URS but also reduce the incidence of postoperative adverse symptoms such as postoperative fever and postoperative pain.