A 63 year old man was in considerable pain until doctors extracted this bladder stone from his urinary tract. The image was posted to Figure 1, a website where doctors around the world share medical images and canvass colleagues’ opinion, by Dr Oktay Ozman, a Urologist at the Cerrahpaşa Medical Faculty in Istanbul.
Bladder stones form when when the bladder isn’t fully emptied and according to a paper in the journal Obstetrics and Gynaecology, men account for 95% of all cases.
While some men won’t have any symptoms — their stones are discovered during an X-ray or scan for another medical condition — others will suffer pain in the bladder area, blood in the urine, cloudy urine or difficulty passing it.
Bladder stones smaller than 1cm may pass out in the urine. But bigger stones such as this one, which is 4cm by 4cm, need surgery.
According to Dr Ozman, the patient had come to him complaining of pain in his pelvis, slow urination and blood in his urine. Tests revealed he had an enlarged prostate. Dr Ozman said: It’s impossible to say for how long he’d had the stone. It was quite big, but I have seen some that are 7cm.’
The patient had surgery to remove the stone and his prostate.
‘He spent a week with the stone in his pocket showing it to everyone and then donated it to us,’ says Dr Ozman.
‘It’s one of the most beautiful jackstones I’ve seen.’
Research shows the best way to prevent bladder stones is to drink plenty of fluid while urinating in a sitting position may help empty the bladder more effectively.
Sourc: DailyMail
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