Laser Treatment of Kidney Stones

Kidney stone disease affects anywhere between 10 to 15 percent of both men and women. The incidence of kidney stone problems has also only increased dramatically in the last 20 years. Cities with warmer climates are more prone to suffer from the burden of kidney stone disease. Furthermore, reduced body hydration can also predispose to you to a kidney stone.

Once you get a kidney stone, you may have excruciating waves of radiating pain, combined with nausea or vomiting. Some patients may also pass urine that is red or pink. Either way, a kidney stone is a medical emergency and requires prompt medical intervention. In a few scenarios, some really large kidney stones can actually lead to chronic kidney disease and finally renal failure.

Scary as hell right?

What is the best way to prevent a stone?

Drink water!

However, not all of us are very adept at listening to medical advice so suppose you are suffering from a kidney stone, which method of kidney stone removal should you choose?

Normally your urologist will give you three conventional treatment options depending on stone size and position. They are

1. Shockwave lithotripsy
2. Ureteroscopic removal with/without stent placement
3. Percutaneous nephrolithotomy.

However, what we are interested specifically is in kidney stone laser lithotripsy.

The advantage of this laser treatment for kidney stone is as follows:

1. Laser treatment for kidney stones can be used for treating different stones that have different compositions.
2. Laser treatment for kidney stones is less invasive and is associated with faster recovery time compared to shockwave lithotripsy or percutaneous nephrolithotomy.
3. Kidney stone laser treatment with the Holmium YAG laser is well researched and has shown excellent results that are equal to shockwave lithotripsy.
4. In a large-scale retrospective study of interventional techniques for kidney done by the European Urology Association (EUA), shock wave lithotripsy for stone treatment was no longer recommended as the first line management for stones. The laser treatment for kidney stones was found to have lower complications, lower risk of stone recurrence as well quicker patient recovery times.
5. Kidney stone laser treatment was also found to be effective for removing both large and small kidney stones. Stone free treatment rates achieved with the laser treatment for kidney stones was over 95.8% in most patients as stated in clinical studies.
6. More interestingly, when patients received a kidney stone laser treatment, the stone re-treatment was almost 5 to 6 times lower as compared to shock-wave lithotripsy.

The above-mentioned points clearly show that laser treatment for kidney stones is clearly a superior procedure when compared to other kidney stone removal methods. Now that you have some understanding as to why you should choose a kidney stone laser treatment, let us answer a few common questions.

Is there any kidney stone laser treatment side effects?

The answer is no. Not anything major for sure. Due to accuracy with which a laser can be fired during a procedure, the complication rate is usually less than 2%.

Blood in the urine after the procedure may be seen, but it usually subsides spontaneously on its own.

What does the kidney stone laser treatment cost? Is it very expensive?

The cost of the treatment at the laser kidney stone clinic Chennai, is no more than the conventional treatment costs that you would normally pay for shockwave therapy. If you have health insurance, we would advise you to discuss the feasibility and possibility of getting the treatment covered under it.

What is the kidney stone laser surgery recovery time?

Usually, most patients recover completely within 24-48 hours. This procedure does not require long and tedious hospital admissions. You can resume all normal activities quickly at the earliest. However, when a stent is placed (this depends on the individual patient), you may need a longer time frame for recovery. This is to allow the kidney stone to pass out through the tract after breaking it up.

Do remember that, even though we are adept at taking care of all and any kidney stone problem you may have, we still strongly believe that prevention is better than cure.

So keep drinking….and drinking…

We meant WATER!