Bladder Stone: Diagnosis and Treatment

Bladder stones are crystallized minerals formed by minerals, such as salt, and waste products, such as protein trapped in your bladder. Bladder stone often happens when you have trouble completely emptying the bladder. Eventually, the leftover urine becomes concentrated, and minerals within the liquid crystalize.

Sometimes smaller bladder stones may pass without treatment, but more often, larger bladder stone gets stuck in the wall of the bladder, which causes severe pain and may lead to infections and other complications.

Symptoms

Small bladder stone cause no symptoms, but if the stone is large or irritates the bladder wall, signs and symptoms may include; lower abdominal pain, pain during urination, frequent urination, interrupted urine flow, blood in the urine, and abnormally dark-coloured urine.

Causes

Bladder stone grows when the bladder doesn’t get empty completely. It often leads to urine starting to stick together and form crystals until they form a bladder stone. Some most common conditions that contribute to bladder stone include bladder infection, damaged urethra, enlarged prostate gland, neurogenic bladder, weak bladder, and kidney stones.

Diagnosis

If you have symptoms associated with a bladder stone, see a urologist. They will start the diagnosis with a physical examination. Other diagnostic tests include urinalysis, spiral city scan, ultrasound, X-rays and intravenous pyelogram.

Treatment

If the bladder stones are discovered when they are small, drinking lots of water may help the small stone pass naturally. If the bladder stones are too large to pass in the urine your doctor may recommend a Cystolitholapaxy. It is a procedure in which laser energy or ultrasound waves are used to break the bladder stones down into smaller pieces before washing them away. If the stone doesn’t break down with Cystolitholapaxy, removal surgery may be necessary.