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Bahrain hospital uses new method to treat kidney stones

BAHRAIN, April 22, 2019

A 50-year-old man suffering from blocked kidneys and renal failure was saved from complicated and high-risk surgery at Bahrain Specialist Hospital.
 
The patient had been diagnosed with two large stones in his kidneys, one sized at two centimetres and the other a size of six to seven centimetres. He had also reported loss of appetite and lower abdominal pain previously.
 
"The conventional treatment for such large stones is open or keyhole surgery.  These surgeries are difficult to perform in patients with renal failure. They are also associated with risk of major bleeding and further damage to the kidney," explained Dr Krishanu Das, consultant adult and pediatric urologist, and transplant surgeon at Bahrain Specialist Hospital.
 
Laser lithotripsy is a novel technique of treating kidney stones. It has several advantages over the traditional technique of fragmenting stones with shock wave lithotripsy. Shock wave lithotripsy may not fragment all types of stones, especially hard stones, and it is ineffective in the management of large stones, plus patients may need several sessions to break the kidney stones. This makes the treatment prolonged and often frustrating. 
 
“With laser energy, kidney stones at any location can be reliably and completely treated in a single sitting. Large stones can be efficiently treated using this technology through the endoscopic approach and thereby, major open or keyhole surgery may be avoided. Major bleeding can be avoided and it is also safe in patients with kidney failure or other medical problems”, said Dr Das.
 
“We planned for a complete endoscopic approach in this patient. First, the right kidney stone was treated with laser lithotripsy and it was unblocked. Subsequently, as he recovered from renal failure endoscopy, laser lithotripsy was performed for the huge left renal staghorn stone. The high power laser enabled rapid dusting of large left side stone. The patient could thereby avoid complex major surgery and was fully active immediately after surgery while his kidney function also improved steadily”, added Dr Das.
 
As per a news report, incidences of kidney stones are considerably higher in the Gulf region where 25 per cent of the adult population suffers from the health issue, compared to the 15 per cent in the West. Although there is no definitive cause for kidney stones, experts believe that poor dietary habits, dehydration and environmental factors increase the risk of stones in the kidney – or stone in the bladder and urinary tract. Similarly, patients with a family history are also at risk. –TradeArabia News Service
 



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