Doctors remove 99 gall bladder stones from K’taka patient in marathon 3-hr surgery

In usual cases, patients have about 10-15 stones, doctors explain.
Doctors remove 99 gall bladder stones from K’taka patient in marathon 3-hr surgery
Doctors remove 99 gall bladder stones from K’taka patient in marathon 3-hr surgery
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Doctors at a district hospital in Karnataka’s Tumakuru district have removed 99 gall bladder stones from a patient.

It is a rather unusual case, considering the number of stones that were removed and how the woman survived with these for so long.

When 45-year-old Salma from Maraluru Dinner had severe abdominal pain, she ignored it for a long time. Little did she know that the underlying problem was serious.

According to doctors who treated her, Salma was diabetic and hypertensive for 10 years. She had complained of pain in the abdomen and had swelling in the anterior abdominal wall (umbilical hernia).

It was only when she underwent scans that multiple stones were found in the gall bladder. A team of doctors then operated on her.

The patient was attended to by Dr Waseem at the District Hospital in Tumakuru. Speaking about the case, anaesthetist Dr Chandrashekar, who was on the case, said that she came to the hospital a fortnight ago.

“She came to us complaining of severe pain in the stomach. She had hernia. Even when we screened her initially, we did not think of a possibility that she would have so many stones. It was once we started operating upon her that so many of it were removed,” he said.

Medical experts took over three hours to perform the surgery.

The woman had never sought medical help before, said doctors. “She is a poor woman. She could not afford hospital visits. She works as a homemaker and her husband is a daily wage labourer. That is their only source of income,” she added.

Unusual high number of stones

Dr Chandrashekar explained that in usual cases, patients have about 10-15 bladder stones. “We have not heard of any such case. Such numbers have not been reported anywhere in the country,” he added.

Unable to avail treatment, the patient withstood the pain for over six years.

Ask him what could have led to this, Dr Chandrashekar says it needs to be researched. “We understand that women who are 40 plus and obese are prone to have it. We are hoping to give the samples for examination and conduct further investigation to understand this case.”

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