Ureteric stone measuring 22 cm removed at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, largest in World

New Delhi: Doctors at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital removed a record-breaking stone from the utterer of a female patient using robotic surgery. The stone was 22 cm long in total and weighed 60 gm surpassing the record holder ureteric stone which ranged up to 25 cms.

The stone was stuck in the utterer which is a tube-like structure that carries urine from the kidney to the bladder. Such a massive stone in the utterer can cause obstruction in the passage of urine and also severe pain.

Doctors at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital opted for the surgical robot which aided stone removal with minimal invasion and quick recovery.

The most interesting part of this case is the fact that the patient who is a resident of Saharanpur was completely unaware of the massive stone that lay inside her body and remained pain-free, which is unusual. Such large stones were traditionally removed by open or large incision procedures. Although current technology allows many modes of treating the stone with minimal invasion, none is foolproof and may need staged attempts at complete removal.

According to Dr Sachin Kathuria, Consultant, Department of Urology, 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 .”

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

The team of doctors namely Dr Sachin Kathuria, Dr Ajay Sharma and Dr Vikram Batra used a robot (known as Da Vinci) to completely remove the stone in a single stage in an exhaustive procedure lasting 4 hours. The surgical robot is available only in a handful of hospitals and helps make the surgery scar free and recovery from it early.

The functional outcome of the surgery was very reassuring and satisfactory and the patient was discharged on the 2nd day of surgery and is doing well. 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.