As we all know, our Qingyuan area is a high incidence of urinary tract stones. Mr. Liu, who is only in his early 40s, started to suffer from left-sided lumbar pain more than ten years ago, and it became more obvious after working hard, and sometimes hematuria. Ten years ago, he was diagnosed with “multiple stones in the left kidney and left hydronephrosis” in the People’s Hospital and had a “left kidney incision and stone extraction”, and received a permanent souvenir – a 12 cm long “centipede” in his left waist. This scar often reminds Mr. Liu of the time when he was lying in bed for more than a week and could not get out of bed, and suffered from the severe pain of the wound from time to time. After the surgery, Ms. Liu also listened carefully to the doctor’s advice and drank a lot of water every day, and her back pain had not attacked for many years. However, since last year, the left back pain has been coming back gradually, with vague pain, and when it is serious, he cannot sleep at night and needs to take painkillers. It seems to be the same old problem! For this reason, some time ago, Mr. Liu entered the urology clinic of the People’s Hospital again, and was diagnosed with “multiple stones in the left kidney and left hydronephrosis” after ultrasound and “intravenous urography”, and the doctor thought that medicine and extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy were no longer suitable. The doctor thought that medication and extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy were no longer suitable, only surgery, so he was hospitalized again. Thinking about his last surgery experience, Mr. Liu had palpitations and anxiety, but this time the urologist introduced him to a new minimally invasive surgical technique – minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy (mPCNL). Mr. Liu accepted this surgery with a try and full trust in the doctor, which is to make a chopstick-head-sized hole in the back to reach the kidney, through which the stone is broken and removed using advanced ureteroscopic pneumatic ballistic lithotripsy technology. On the fifth day after the operation, Mr. Liu was happily discharged home, and soon he could return to his beloved lectern again. Mr. Liu said with emotion: “It’s not like the old days! Technological advances have brought people so much benefit!” What is minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy? Minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy is a procedure in which the kidney stones and even the upper ureteral stones are broken up and removed by using lumpectomy instruments such as ureteroscope to treat the stones. Percutaneous nephrolithotomy was first applied by Fernstrom and Johannson in 1976, and has rapidly spread worldwide as an alternative to open surgery. Percutaneous nephrolithotomy is less traumatic and less painful for the patient, and can resume normal life and work in a short period of time, thus it was quickly promoted. Minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy, together with ureteroscopy and extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy, has become the main modern treatment method for upper urinary tract stones, and has revolutionized the traditional open surgery surgical treatment method. At present, more than 80% of urinary tract stones are treated without open surgery (commonly known as “open surgery”) in the urology department of the city hospital. The indications for mPCNL are wide, including: 1. kidney stones: kidney stones larger than 2 cm, multiple stones, antler-shaped stones, residual and recurrent kidney stones from open surgery, stones that have failed extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy, symptomatic stones in the calyces or diverticula, etc.; 2. large stones in the upper ureter (longer than 1.5 cm in diameter), and 3. post-surgical upper urinary tract obstruction; 4. diagnosis and treatment of various obstructive or unexplained hydronephrosis. Although the risk of minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy is relatively small, there are some contraindications: those with uncorrected systemic bleeding disorders; those with stones combined with ipsilateral renal tumors; those with spinal deformities that cannot lie prone; those with severe cardiopulmonary insufficiency, uncontrolled diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and cannot tolerate surgery; those who are extremely obese, with a waist-to-skin distance of more than 20 cm, and have difficulty in establishing a skin-to-skin channel. What are the advantages of minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy compared with traditional open surgery? Minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy is only 0.5~0.6 cm in size, compared to traditional open surgery, which requires a 10~14 cm skin incision and incision of the kidney parenchyma, which is rich in blood vessels and bleeds a lot during and after surgery, and causes great damage to kidney function. Minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy reduces the trauma to a minimum, with less intraoperative bleeding and even less postoperative bleeding, usually without blood transfusion. Therefore, the patient’s safety is high. All kidney stones requiring open surgery are indications, even those difficult to be treated by open surgery, such as recurrent stones, small calyx stones with combined calyx neck stenosis, diverticulum stones, and serious stones after ESWL can be treated by minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy. Third, shorten the hospitalization time and reduce medical expenses: minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy is routinely performed as a one-stage lithotomy, which is easy for patients to accept because of light trauma, less bleeding, low complications, high stone removal rate and fast recovery of patients, generally 7-9 days in hospital, which shortens the hospitalization time and also saves hospitalization expenses, reduces missed work and nutrition expenses. In contrast, open surgery is generally hospitalized for 15 to 20 days, and the patient is bedridden for a week after surgery, which is more painful. Fourth, repeated surgery is possible: for larger stones can be removed through the same channel second and third stage surgery, and does not aggravate the injury, for multiple recurrence of stones can also be repeatedly applied minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy. While the high recurrence rate of stones, kidney stones after open surgery due to tissue scarring, serious adhesions, anatomical structure changes, re-operation is significantly more difficult to do a third open surgery has been extremely difficult. Fifth, clean stone removal: many people mistakenly believe that open surgery is more complete, in fact, the current minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithoscopy technology has matured, with extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy, stone removal effect is completely comparable to open surgery, and even for open surgery is difficult to take the small calyx stones, diverticulum stones have unique advantages. This shows that, due to the rapid improvement of medical technology, stone patients no longer need to be afraid of “open surgery”, minimally invasive urology technology continues, in the near future, will completely replace open surgery. However, it is especially recommended that people “prevention is better than cure”, drink more water in daily life, proper exercise, balanced diet, regular medical checkups, stone prevention, as well as early detection and early treatment of stones, to minimize the damage of stones to the human body!