- Almost 9.6% of Indians will form one or several stones in their urinary system, in their lifetime.
- Stones are formed because of collection of crystals due to lack of water intake and hereditary reasons, apart from several other factors.
- Mostly stones, smaller than 4 mm are passed out with urine spontaneously in next three months
- Stones of size 7mm to 15mm can be broken into smaller pieces with the help of ESWL – “Lithotripsy machineâ€, inside the body and then these stone particles and dust pass out on its own with the urine, provided the affected kidney is functioning well and producing fair amount of urine to flow and there is no obstruction beyond, in the urinary passage.
-  Stones larger than 15mm to any size can be removed with the help of “Key Hole Surgery†called PCNL. As opposed to Laparoscopy – PCNL requires creation of only one hole of 8 to 10mm on the side in more than 90% of the patients but may need two holes in 5 to 7% of cases.
- PCNL is done under double monitoring system – Direct inside vision and continuous X-Ray monitoring. Hence chances of complete confident removal of stones from the kidney are more than 98% in expert hands.
- Since large, neglected stones are abundant in India, Indian Urological surgeons are considered best and most experienced all over the world in this skillful surgical exercise called – “PCNLâ€
- PCNL requires hospital admission for 1 to 2 days only and single or no-stitch technique is used. Any size or number of stones in kidneys can be removed with this technique. Kidneys of abnormal shapes and location can also be treated with PCNL. Stones in both the kidneys can be treated at the same time.
- Chinese technique of PCNL requires only a 3mm incision and a more recent refinement in PCNL invented in Germany called MINIMALLY INVASIVE PCNL requires only a 5mm incision for doing PCNL.
Facts about Kidney Stones
October 3rd, 2010 | Published in Health