Doctors at Ganga Ram remove stone from woman's urinary tract, claim its largest in the world

The stone, removed from a woman, who is a resident of Uttar Pradesh, measured 22 cm in total and weighed 60 gm.
For representational purposes
For representational purposes

NEW DELHI: A big stone was removed from a woman's urinary tract at a city hospital, with doctors claiming that it was the largest such stone removed from a patient's body anywhere in the world.

The stone, removed from a woman, who is a resident of Uttar Pradesh, measured 22 cm in total and weighed 60 gm.

The total length of a ureter -- urinary pipe leading from kidney to bladder -- is approximately the same length, according to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

"It is the longest ureteric stone reported in a surgery till now. The longest ureteric stone reported till now was of 21.5 cm," the hospital said in a statement.

Such large stones were traditionally removed by open or large incision procedures.

Although, the current technology allows many modes of treating a stone with minimal invasion, none is foolproof and may need staged attempts at complete removal, doctors at the hospital said.

According to Dr Sachin Kathuria, Consultant, Department of Urology, at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, "The use of surgical robot made it possible to remove such a long stone in a single surgery and allowed the stone removal with minimum scar and quick recovery."

The statement said,"What is special about the case is the fact that the patient, Natasha, a resident of Saharanpur was completely pain-free and unaware of the massive stone that lay inside her body.

Kidney stones are very common occurrence in this part of the country. The large stone burden are also not uncommon and need multitude of treatment forms to remove them completely, doctors said.

"A team of doctors, namely Dr Sachin Kathuria, Dr Ajay Sharma and Dr Vikram Batra used robot (known as 'Da Vinci') to completely remove stone in a single stage in an exhaustive procedure lasting four hours," the statement said.

The surgical robot is available only in a handful of hospitals and helps make the surgery scar-free, and early recovery, it said.

The functional outcome of the surgery was very "reassuring and satisfactory" and patient was discharged on second day of surgery and is doing well, the statement said.

"It is to reiterate the fact that north India remains a stone hub and prevention can only be done by adequate fluid intake. If detected in time the surgery is scar-free," the statement added.

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