Abstract
Percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) is a standard operation for treating large kidney stones but carries a risk of postoperative infection. Recent guidelines recommend obtaining a stone culture or kidney stone culture, yet no standardized protocol exists for processing kidney stones. Bead beating (BB) is a standardizable method of specimen preparation technique, which has been utilized for bacterial culture in other fields, but its application to kidney stone cultures is novel. Sixty kidney stone specimens were collected prospectively from patients undergoing PCNL, and each specimen was processed by either BB or mortar and pestle (MP). Following homogenization, samples were cultured with the standard procedure for a high-quality urine culture. Microorganisms were identified using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry and quantified following standard laboratory procedures. Statistical comparisons were performed using McNemar's test and paired t-tests, as appropriate. Of the 60 kidney stones, 25 (41.7%) yielded microbial growth, with BB detecting growth in all 25 stones compared to MP detecting growth in 18 (P = 0.02). Both methods identified the same microorganisms in 17 stones, while BB uniquely detected organisms in seven stones, and MP uniquely detected Proteus mirabilis in one stone. BB demonstrated higher sensitivity for detecting microbial growth compared to MP, suggesting that adopting a standardized protocol incorporating BB could improve diagnostic accuracy and enhance our understanding of infection-related stone disease. Further studies should evaluate the clinical implications of these findings and determine whether BB-based stone culture processing and subsequent culture results correlate with postoperative infection outcomes. IMPORTANCE: This study provides a rapid and standardized method for kidney stone culture using bead beating, which significantly improves microbial detection compared to traditional mortar-pestle techniques. This method accelerates processing and enhances sensitivity for identifying microbes present in kidney stones, offering the potential for more accurate diagnoses. By providing a robust and efficient protocol, it paves the way for standardized practices across laboratories and clinical settings.