A Randomized Controlled Trial of Preoperative Prophylactic Antibiotics for Ureteroscopy in Moderate to High Infectious Risk Population

Post-operative infectious complications including urinary tract infection (UTI), systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), and sepsis are uncommon but potentially devastating complications after ureteroscopy. The clinical guidance from the American Urologic Association (AUA) and the European Association of Urology (EAU) is to provide treatment for symptomatic urinary tract infections however the management for asymptomatic patients with positive cultures or those patients who are otherwise at high risk of urinary tract colonization is unclear. As a result, there is significant practice variation in pre-operative prophylactic antibiotic prescription, even amongst fellowship trained endourologists, with some providers prescribing over ten days of pre-operative antibiotics while others offer none. This is a critical gap in our understanding of pre-operative prophylactic antibiotic utilization in a population of patients not only at higher risk of harboring multi-drug resistant (MDR) organisms but are also more susceptible to deleterious outcomes due to their frailty. Recent randomized trials have demonstrated that short courses of pre-operative antibiotics are no less protective than long courses in patients undergoing percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) for stone removal. Ureteroscopy is the most commonly performed stone surgery worldwide. Establishing an evidence-based approach for antibiotic prophylaxis in the ureteroscopic surgical patient population will be impactful for a large number of patients. The goal of this study is to implement a well-designed randomized clinical trial to establish the standardized antibiotic protocol necessary to minimize unnecessary antibiotic use which may otherwise lead to adverse reactions and proliferation of multi-drug resistant organisms.