Kidney stone treatment

[bmcgonig]

I have a good friend that has a kidney stone that is a little greater than 2 cm. The stone is lodged inside the kidney at the entrance to the ureter.

His urologist has given him two options. One is a uteroscopy I.e., putting a probe up through the urinary tract and into the kidney and breaking up the stone. The other is something called a PCNL, I.e.the following.

https://www.uofmhealth.org/conditions-treatments/adult-urology/percutaneous-nephrolithotomy

The urologist said that if it were him he’d do the PCNL Better chance of getting the entire stone.

Anyway, does anyone have experience with this procedure?

 

[Texas Proud]

I had two that they used ultrasound to break them up...



Still a hospital procedure but no cutting...

 

[big-papa]

I had two that they used ultrasound to break them up...



Still a hospital procedure but no cutting...

I've had 2 kidney stones ( so far )
First one was done with ultrasound as an outpatient in a surgical center. I was under general anethesia during the procedure. Once done, you pee a little bit of sand for a day or two.

For the second one, 10 years after the first one, the urologist could not get access to ultrasound in a timely manner and had scheduled a minor surgery instead. Fortunately, the day before it was scheduled, I passed the stone fairly painlessly. Not knowing what passing it was going to be like, I still would have preferred the ultrasound method.

2 data points and wondering if this is going to be a once every 10 year sort of thing for me...

Cheers
Big-Papa

 

[Qs Laptop]

I have a good friend that has a kidney stone that is a little greater than 2 cm. The stone is lodged inside the kidney at the entrance to the ureter.

Whoa! That is a heck of a kidney stone.

I had a cytoscopy recently and I've got a 3 mm stone in my bladder. The hope is that I pass it during urination. Gosh, can't wait.

I have not had the procedure you mentioned. However, given the relative large size of the stone and the location, that PCNL does seem to be the best way to completely remove it. The problem with the ultrasound is that it will break up the large stone into smaller pieces but those pieces might be difficult and painful to pass, and like the doctor said, not be assured of getting them all out.

 

[wolf]

Brother just had kidney stone removed 2 weeks ago.
Stone was stuck, at entrance to ureter.
Kaiser Hospital. California. They used a laser to break up stone.
Under General. In and out same day.
Left catheter in for 3-4 days. Had a little blue string attached. Removel required quick
pull.

 

[rk911]

I had two that they used ultrasound to break them up...



Still a hospital procedure but no cutting...

I produce kidney stones frequently. My biggest was 17mm! That resulted in 4 trips to an ER and a procedure using a laser to break it up. General anesthesia for the laser but lots of pain afterwards. The 17mm stone was now in many smaller pieces that took forever to pass. My last stone was 4mm...it passed relatively quickly.

Good luck.

 

[razztazz]

I produce kidney stones frequently. My biggest was 17mm! That resulted in 4 trips to an ER and a procedure using a laser to break it up. General anesthesia for the laser but lots of pain afterwards. The 17mm stone was now in many smaller pieces that took forever to pass. My last stone was 4mm...it passed relatively quickly.

Good luck.

If I may, did they give you any kind of a diet to follow to avoid kidney stones in the future?

 

[rk911]

If I may, did they give you any kind of a diet to follow to avoid kidney stones in the future?

Nope,nothing about diet other than to keep drinking water. The more, the better. I get an x-ray of the kidneys every year to see if there are any new stones forming.

 

[scrinch]

I make kidney stones often also. I've got a nice little plastic box that I keep them in in the bedside stand. The largest one I've passed is about 10x7mm. It was definitely a painful thing to do. A stone twice that long is likely to have 8 times the volume (2x2x2) or more. That's going to be a lot of angular debris to pass through those little urinary tract tubes if it is broken up in place. I think I would opt for the percutaneous removal of the whole thing directly from the kidney rather than signing up for a bunch of still rather large and painful stones over the following weeks or months.