Ureteral Stents

Radical Cystectomy (RC) remains the gold standard for localized muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC); however, use of ureteral stents at time of surgery remains controversial without level 1 evidence to comment on risks or benefits of their use. RC complications commonly include urinary tract infections (UTIs), pyelonephritis, ureteroileal leakage and stenosis, and can occur with either ileal conduit or orthotopic neobladder diversions. Traditionally, ureteral stents are thought to support anastomotic healing and reduce the risk of anastomotic leakage and strictures; however, emerging evidence from retrospective studies suggests that stent use may paradoxically increase rates of postoperative morbidity. This randomized, multicenter and prospective study aims to compare 30-day postoperative complication rates between stented and non-stented urinary diversions in patients undergoing RC for MIBC, in both ileal conduit or neobladder with either robotic or open approaches.

Urologic surgery has advanced with new technologies to allow less invasive management of common afflictions such as kidney stones, these procedures are notoriously painful as the ureter must be dilated to accommodate any instruments, and a ureteral stent is often left following surgery to allow for adequate healing. Unfortunately, stents are poorly tolerated by a significant number of patients, with up to 100% complaining of bothersome pain and 10% of patients with unplanned healthcare visits. Further complicating kidney stone management is the frequency of concurrent chronic kidney disease (CKD) or acute kidney injury (AKI) that prohibits many patients from taking NSAIDs which limits pain management options. There is now a push to treat these patients with multimodal analgesia to provide better care and reduce opioid use. Suzetrigine is a new a first-in-class selective inhibitor of the NaV1.8 sodium channel that functions as a non-opioid analgesic developed to treat acute pain and neuropathic pain. This study assesses the addition of suzetrigine to standard-of-care multimodal analgesia. We hypothesize a demonstrated decrease in opioid use, decrease Emergency Room visits within 30 days, decrease the number of unplanned care encounters.