Urolithiasis practice patterns following the COVID-19 Pandemic: Overview from the EULIS Collaborative Research Working Group

Abstract

COVID-19 was first reported as a novel pulmonary infectionin December 2019 [1]. Apart from being a potentially lethalcondition, COVID-19 is also affecting health care strategiesfor other medical conditions. Ficarra et al [2] have madesuggestions regarding urological surgeries during theCOVID-19 pandemic. However, the authors focused on allurological pathologies and reported information from Italy,a country that seemed to be the epicenter of the pandemicin Europe [2]. Therefore, we sought to obtain an up-to-dateperspective on how the routine practice patterns of expertEuropean endourologists changed (or adapted) during theCOVID-19 pandemic via a survey. By focusing on expertexperience coming from the field, we aimed to provide analgorithm to guide the management of urinary stonedisease during this unprecedented time of extraordinarystress on the global endourology community.