11.9 mm Kidney Stone Treatment

Diagnosis

If you experience kidney stone symptoms, the urologist first conducts a series of diagnostic tests to understand your condition and create a suitable treatment plan:

• Blood test: Blood tests help the doctor assess uric acid and calcium levels in the blood to understand overall kidney health.
• Urine culture: A 24-hour urine culture test allows the doctor to check the components of urine to know if there is a urinary or kidney infection. 
• Screening tests: Tests like CTS scans, ultrasounds, and abdominal X-rays allow the doctor to locate and evaluate the size of kidney stones.

Surgery

For a 10mm kidney stone treatment, the doctor may ask you to undergo any of the following surgeries:

• ESWL (Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy): It is a non-invasive procedure using shockwaves like ultrasounds to break down kidney stones into tiny particles that can easily flush out of the body. 
• RIRS (Retrograde Intrarenal Surgery): It is an endoscopic procedure where the surgeon uses a fiberoptic endoscope and ureteroscope to find and remove stones from the kidneys or ureters.
  
• PCNL (Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy): This minimally advanced procedure is performed to remove stones located in the kidney or upper ureter that are too big to dissolve through any other procedure.
• Ureteroscopic lithotripsy (URSL): In this procedure, the surgeon inserts a ureteroscope into the ureter to locate and disintegrate the stones using shock waves. There may be a need to place a urethral stent after completing the procedure to ensure that the ureter is open. The stent may be removed a few days or weeks following the surgery.