What is Endoscopic Litholapaxy?
Endoscopic Litholapaxy is the crushing or disintegrating of stones in your bladder using a telescopic fragmentation device or a laser passed through your urethra (waterpipe). Once the stone has been broken up, the small fragments produced can be removed using suction.
To ensure accuracy a cystoscopy is also performed at the same time, this procedure is a used to look inside the bladder using a very thin camera called a cystoscope. The cystoscope is inserted into the uretha (the tube that carries urine out of the body) and passed into the bladder.
Why this procedure?
It is very likely that all of the stone(s) can be cleared in one procedure.
What is the procedure?
You will be given either a general anesthetic (where you will be asleep) or a spinal anaesthetic (where you will be unable to feel anything from the waist down). The cystoscopy (inserting a telescope into your bladder via your urethra) so that we can get a clear picture of the stone(s), small stones can be washed out using the telescope alone. Larger stones are broken up using either a crushing device, a tiny laser or a mechanical disintegration device. The fragments of the stone are then removed using simple suction.
It may be necessary to put in a bladder catheter, which is a flexible tube used to empty the bladder and collect urine in a drainage bag. They can either be inserted through the tube that carries urine out of the bladder (urethral catheter) or through a small opening made in your lower tummy (suprapubic catheter). The catheter is removed after 1 to 3 days.
Before, during and after the procedure:
The procedure usually takes between 15 mins to an hour and you should expect to stay in hospital for two to three days.
Most procedures have a potential for side effects, you should be reassured that, although all these complications are well recognised, the majority of patients do not suffer any problems.
However it is common to experience:
Mild burning or bleeding on passing urine for short period after operation.
You may also need an additional procedure (eg resection of the prostate gland) if this is thought to be the cause of the stone formation.
Occasionally you may experience a bladder infection that will require treatment with antibiotics.
When you get home, you should drink twice as much fluid as you would normally for the next 24 to 48 hours to flush your system through. You may find that, when you first pass urine, it stings or burns slightly and it may be lightly bloodstained.
If you develop a fever, severe pain on passing urine, inability to pass urine or worsening bleeding, you should contact your GP immediately.