New surgery technique quickens recovery from kidney stones

(WYTV) — Most small kidney stones can pass on their own.

But kidney stones that are too large to pass that way can cause bleeding, kidney damage or a urinary tract infection.

Then you’re talking surgery but with new options. The goal is to make the incisions as small as possible, the surgery less invasive.

One new technique is called ureteroscopy.

“We use a very small camera, about the size of a telephone cord, to go in through the urinary tract and visualize the stone, whether it be in the ureter or the kidney, or sometimes even in the bladder,” Aaron Potretzke, a urologist at the Mayo Clinic, said. “Then we would break that stone up, if need be, usually with a laser, and then pick out the individual pieces.”

Another option is a percutaneous surgery to remove very large kidney stones.

The incision is as wide as a finger in the patient’s back and then larger instruments and cameras look into the kidney and break up the stones.

The smaller the incision, the fewer the complications, the less pain and the quicker the recovery.

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