Manipal: Doctors of Kasturba Hospital, Manipal successfully operated a 46-year old person from Karkala for a kidney stone that weighed 530 gms at the hospital here recently.
The man was admitted with just five days of discomfort and pain and also complained of his inability to control urination. Head of Urology Department Dr. Padmaraj Hegde, who led a team of doctors in the operation, examined and suggested investigations. Surprisingly, the X-ray showed a stone 10 x 8 cms in size, the fourth largest stone recorded in the history of medical science by urologists from Kasturba Hospital, Manipal. The patient has now recovered and is back to leading a normal life.
Dr. Padmaraj along with Dr. Zeeshan Hameed, Dr. Manjunath (both Urology) and Dr. Ramkumar anaesthetist performed open cystolithotomy surgery to remove the stone bigger in size than a tennis ball. What surprised the doctors was the size of the stone in a patient who is not old and had symptoms just for five days. Medical literature records only three stones bigger than this one, from China, Hungary and Brazil.
Bladder stones are generally found in the neck of the bladder causing obstruction and infecting the urinary tract. It is associated with neurogenic bladder and foreign objects and in older patients. In recent urological practice, a giant bladder stones is rare, especially those greater than 100 grams. When searching journals for articles on this topic in the last 30 years, less than 85 relevant articles were found. The available literature from India after ascertaining does record a single bladder stone weighing 800 grams from Ulhasnagar.
Dr (Col) Dayananda, Medical Superintendent and COO mentioned that early detection is the key to better surgical outcome. Advanced facilities at the Urology Operation Theatre Complex Kasturba Hospital Manipal like Laser energy system is capable of breaking the hardest of the stones, in an endoscopic method.
