NEW DELHI: Doctors of the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital on Tuesday successfully removed a ureteric stone of 22 centimetres from the urinary pipe of a 35-year-old woman. They claimed the stone was the longest of its kind in the world.According to the hospital authorities, unlike other patients who have stones in their bodies, the patient, Natasha Malik from Saharanpur, did not feel any pain and had no inkling of the presence of the stone inside her body till last month.

In March, Malik suddenly started feeling over weight and felt uneasiness, although there was still no pain. After a blood test, an ultra sound and an X-Ray failed to spot the stone, “It was finally in a CT Scan that the stone was detected. And then we came to Ganga Ram for surgery,” added Natasha. 

“Not all patients with stone will feel pain in the abdomen so was the case with Natasha. Usually in such cases where the stone is so long there remain high chances of infection or kidney injury. But the patient didn’t show any of them, which was a good sign,” Dr Sachin Kathuria, Consultant, Department of Urology said.

He added that because of the size of the stone, the usual procedures of endoscopy or abdominal surgery could not be applied. The stone was so long that doctors decided to go in for a robotic surgery.
“It took us around 4 hours for completing the surgery. The use of a surgical robot made it possible to remove such a long stone in a single surgery. The chances of scarring are minimum and the patient recovers quickly. The patient was discharged on the second day of the operation,” added Dr Sachin.

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