To examine the gender-related differences in the presentation, management and outcomes of patients admitted with acute renal colic at our institution.
A retrospective analysis of 231 consecutive patients requiring inpatient admission for acute renal colic between October 2015-March 2018. For each admission, data on demographics, admission blood results, stone characteristics, management and outcomes was collected. Differences between genders were compared using the Chi-squared and Student’s t-test.
Gender distribution was 35% female: 65% male. There was no significant difference in age, ASA grade or history of diabetes. Women had a higher admission CRP (89.3 vs 32.9mg/L, p=0.0001) and neutrophil count (10.0 vs 8.8×109/L, p=0.04) than men. They also had more positive cultures (34.1% vs 6.0%, p=0.0001) and were more likely to require percutaneous nephrostomy insertion (9.8% vs 0.7%, p=0.005). Women had more ITU admissions (12.2% vs 0.6%, p=0.0003) and longer lengths of stay (4.4d vs 1.8d, p=0.0001) than men. There was no mortality in our series.
In this study, women admitted with acute renal colic were more likely to have an associated infection than men and require rapid decompression. Although there was no difference in mortality, women experienced greater morbidity as evidenced by the higher rate of ITU admissions and longer LOS. These differences are important to consider when assessing the suitability of conservative management for female patients.

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