Vesicolithotomy

How are bladder stones formed?

Bladder stone, as the name suggests, is the formation of stones containing minerals in the urine, which are formed in the bladder if the urine is not excreted completely. Cystolitis, or bladder stone, occurs when urine does not pass completely, and when urine remains in the bladder and the urine thickens, the minerals in it turn into crystals.

Excretion of these stones, if they are small, sometimes occurs without any symptoms, along with urine. Sometimes, these stones may stick to the wall of the bladder or the mesena (the tube that carries urine from the kidney to the bladder) and grow larger or increase in number over time. Small bladder stones are not always symptomatic. Sometimes a long time has passed since the formation of these stones, and the patient is informed of the presence of stones in the bladder with an imaging scan. But if the bladder stone is large and irritates and scratches the bladder wall or narrows or blocks the flow of urine, it causes symptoms such as:

- Urine retention or inflammation of the bladder (cystitis) if the stone has blocked the opening of the bladder.
- Repetition or interruption of urination and interruption in urination
- Problems such as urinary incontinence
- Feeling of pain in the lower abdomen
- The presence of blood in the urine
- Urinary burning

Bladder stones are more common in which people?
As mentioned in the article on the symptoms of enlarged prostate, due to the pressure that is placed on the urethra due to the enlarged prostate, the possibility of difficulty in urinating also increases in people with enlarged prostate. For this reason, the prevalence of bladder stones is more common in men over 50 years of age who are gradually facing enlarged prostates.

Bladder stone treatment
If the bladder stone is detected when it is still not too big and problematic, it may be passed by increasing water consumption and not causing any problems. In cases where the stone is not removed and the patient is facing problems, two methods of surgery and stone crusher are performed to remove the bladder stone at the discretion of the doctor.

Bladder stone surgery
In this method, the kidney and urinary tract surgeon makes an incision under the abdomen to access the bladder and removes the stone from the bladder through open surgery. Considering the costs, complications of surgery and the long recovery period for the patient, urologists always use the stone crusher method first to remove the bladder stone, in case of failure, they inevitably choose open surgery to remove the stone.

Bladder stone crushing
Bladder stone crushing is performed as an outpatient procedure without the need for anesthesia and hospitalization, more affordable than surgery and with fewer complications. In this method, kidney, bladder and ureter stones are removed by broken ultrasound.