Dr Varinder Attri – Urologist, Andrologist and Laparoscopic surgeon

Kidney stones are most common problem for which patient visit to the urologist. 10-15% of men and 5-10% of women have renal stone disease at any point of time.

Patient often complain of flank heaviness, nausea, vomiting, recurrent urinary infection if kidney stones are large at presentation. Many times people are asymptomatic for the stones and sometimes diagnosed with kidney stone incidentally.

There are various techniques and surgeries of kidney stone removal. These have evolved from anatropic nephrolithotomy, open nephrolithotomy (removal of stone by open surgery), PCNL (endoscopic method of stone surgery), mini PCNL and recently RIRS.8 tips to prevent recurrent kidney stone formation

RIRS, otherwise called retrograde intrarenal surgery, uses flexible uretero-renoscope which passes through urethra into bladder and then through ureter into kidney. The stone is localised in the kidney and then laser fiber is passed through this endoscope and stone is pulverized into dust or very small particles. This scope can pass into every nook and corner inside kidney and stone can be treated. As the passage used for surgery is natural passage, there is no to minimal chance of bleeding and no external scar.

Among the various other techniques of stone surgery, RIRS offers minimal invasive method of stone treatment. Patients can get back to work very early after surgery as the recovery time is less.

Watch the video on RIRS at https://www.facebook.com/share/v/2VNFEpSZcoHULvEB/?mibextid=oFDknk