Girl forgot stent in stomach for 5 years

For many months now, she has been suffering from frequent and painful urination. Recently, when she went to the 108 Military Central Hospital for examination, the doctor discovered that a JJ stent had broken into 3 pieces, one of which was on the kidney and 2 in the patient's bladder. Around the broken stent, there were many stones that caused the pain and frequent urination. The patient's bladder stones were larger than 3 cm in size.

Dr. Tran Duc Dung, Department of Nephrology and Urology, said that JJ stent is a hollow, flexible plastic tube specially designed to be placed in the ureter. The length of the stent used for adult patients is about 24-30 cm.

The stent with stones was removed from the patient's abdomen. Photo:An Ngoc.

Doctors recommend placing a JJ stent when a patient has a blockage in the ureter or kidney. The JJ stent allows urine to flow from the kidney to the bladder even if the ureter is blocked for any reason. In this way, the kidney continues to function and is not damaged by the blockage, while avoiding the severe pain that occurs when the kidney does not drain well. The risk of infection is also significantly reduced.

However, JJ stents are usually not kept in the body for more than 3 months.

This time the patient underwent laparoscopic surgery to remove the broken stent and crush the bladder stones. After a week of surgery, the patient's health was stable and he was discharged from the hospital.

Doctor Dung recommends that when having urinary stones, patients need to monitor, check regularly, and have periodic re-examinations to avoid dangerous complications like the patient above.

To prevent disease, you should drink enough 1.5-2 liters of water every day, including soup in meals. On hot days, the body needs to be fully hydrated because of sweating.

Le Nga