Doctors in Sri Lanka have successfully removed a massive bladder stone weighing approximately 3.1 kilograms from a patient. According to medical staff, this is the largest bladder stone ever extracted to date. The surgery took place last week at a hospital in Trincomalee, located in the eastern region of Sri Lanka. The patient, a 55-year-old man, was admitted after suffering a stroke. During treatment, when he experienced difficulty urinating, doctors discovered the presence of a large bladder stone.
The stone removed during surgery was comparable in weight to a newborn baby and shaped similarly to an ostrich egg. “According to available records, this is the largest bladder stone ever removed surgically,” said Dr. Prahlahan Balakrishnan, who led the operation. Doctors have reported that the patient is currently in good health and continues to receive treatment for other conditions at the hospital.
Dr. Balakrishnan estimates that the stone may have been developing in the patient’s bladder for between five to ten years. Bladder stones form when mineral deposits accumulate, typically caused by the bladder not emptying completely, resulting in concentrated urine crystallizing into stones. Small stones can often pass naturally in urine, but those larger than one centimeter generally obstruct urine flow and require medication or surgical intervention for removal.
Stones larger than four centimeters are classified as giant bladder stones. According to the Guinness World Records, the largest bladder stone previously recorded was removed in Brazil in 2003, weighing 1.9 kilograms and measuring 17.9 centimeters in length. The bladder stone removed last week in Sri Lanka measured approximately 17 centimeters long, setting a new record.
