What is Bladder Stone? | What Are Bladder Stone Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment?

Bladder stones are hard masses seen in the bladder. If there is no infection at the bladder outlet, there may be no signs of bladder stones.

The urinary bladder (bladder) is an organ made up of muscular vessels and nerves that stores urine coming from the kidney through ureter tubes and empties urine through the urethral tube after 400-500 cc.

Since it is the urine storage organ and there are enough minerals such as calcium, oxalate, and magnesium for stone formation in the urine, stone death may occur if a suitable environment is formed.

Bladder stones do not normally occur. There are some substances such as citrate that prevent stone formation in the urine.

However, bladder stones may occur due to changes in the composition of the balanced materials. Stones may also form in the bladder as a result of small stones coming from the kidney and ureter to form and grow.

If bladder emptying is insufficient due to conditions such as benign prostate enlargement, prostate cancer, neurogenic bladder, and if residual urine remains after urinating, bladder stones may occur. In addition, it may occur due to infections occurring in the support.

Symptoms of bladder stones may include the patient’s difficulty urinating with stones obstructing the urine outlet, pressure decreases, bleeding in the urine, frequent urination.

If there is an infection, there may be fever, chills due to prostate and kidney inflammation.

In order to diagnose bladder stones, first of all, a medical history including diseases, surgeries, and current additional diseases is taken and a detailed physical examination is performed. In physical examination, there is sensitivity when the lower abdomen is pressed.

X-ray and ultrasonography can be done to view the stone. Computed tomography should not be avoided when necessary.

If the patient is a man, the presence of benign prostatic enlargement should be investigated. In addition, it should be investigated whether there are accompanying neurogenic bladder and metabolic diseases.

 After the stone is detected in the bladder, the size, number, and underlying diseases of the stone should be determined and treatment alternatives should be discussed.

During the treatment of bladder stones, if the stone comes from the kidney and ureteral tubes, the patient can drop this stone and the stones with this character can be expected to fall. However, larger stones must be removed from the bladder.

If there are factors that cause the real stone, they should be eliminated. If the bladder stone is small, it can be entered from the urethra with a camera cystoscope and broken with laser or other tools. A wig cystolithotomy (PSL) can be applied to multiple stones larger than 3 cm and the success rate is close to 100%. If necessary, open surgery can be performed on very large stones.

Some patients with bladder stones may develop more stones in the future. After the stone has been dropped or removed, it should be determined whether there is a risk of recurrence. To do this, it is necessary to analyze the stone. If the risk of recurrence is low, general lifestyle changes will be sufficient to reduce the risk of forming another stone.

If you have a high risk of recurrence, a series of specific blood and urine tests called metabolic assessment are performed (metabolic assessment for kidney stones). Depending on the test results, preventive measures or further testing are recommended. These are;

• 5 to 3 liters of water should be consumed evenly throughout the day.
• pH neutral beverages such as water or milk should be chosen.
• There should be 2 to 2.5 liters of urine output every day.
• Urine color should be light yellow
• If living in a hot climate or doing heavy exercise, the fluid lost should be balanced.

• Depending on the individual situation of the people, he may recommend diet adjustments.
• Balanced and varied diets
• Excessive consumption of vitamin supplements should be avoided
• Eat lots of vegetables, fiber and fruit (especially citrus fruits).
• Eat foods low in oxalate such as eggs, lentils, white rice, peeled apples, grapes, cauliflower, zucchini.
• There should be sufficient calcium in the diet (approximately 1000 milligrams per day). However, it is worth paying attention to calcium supplements.
• Reduce the amount of salt in your diet (3 to 5 grams per day)
• Too much animal protein, especially meat from young animals should not be eaten. Instead, eat more vegetable protein, such as in avocados, cauliflower or peas.
• Maintain a healthy weight (body mass index should be between 18-25 kg / m2)

It is always a good idea to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

• Exercise should be done 2 or 3 times a week
• Stress should be avoided