Ureteral stent: Pros and Cons

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Ureteral stent is a very useful surgical instrument in Endoscopic Urologic surgery. My patients always asked questions on this thing “what was that?”? Is it dangerous to do so? What will cause the side effects during retaining the ureteral stent? This topic I will encoding all your questions.

Ureteral stent or communicated-friendly among medical professional “Double-J stent” is a small tube with double pigtail coil at both end (Pigtail’s shape is lookalike J alphabet, that’s why we called Double-J stent). It was invented since 1976 with tremendous benefits in urologic management. Due to its shape mimic the ureteral anatomy, 25 cm long with diameter that relatively smaller than ureteral lumen, it is designed for securing the ureter anatomy whenever the function of ureter is impaired. When ureteral stent is in-place, we’re absolutely confident that the urine will be freely flowing from kidney into bladder without any pain.

The indications of ureteral stent incident:

1. Severe kidney infection with impaired urine transportation
2. Severe kidney injury from an accident
3. Ureteral injury from accident
4. Intolerable acute stone pain
5. Pre-stenting before Extracorporeal Shockwave Lithotripsy (ESWL) in big kidney stone
6. Ureteral swelling from impacted ureteric stone after Endoscopic laser surgery

Lifetime of ureteral stent – The stent is commonly designed for using in the urinary system for 3 months. The less time in the system, the less protective stent become encrusted (There is calcium-ion in the urine which always try to make the ureteral stent become a stone in the urinary system).

Stent-related symptoms – Since everything has pros and cons, we cannot avoid discomfort symptom from having the ureteral stent in our body. Our physical body is so smart, they can notify this foreign body and they always trying to remove it out by natural ureteral contraction. Unfortunately, they cannot afford for all sudden that they have been trying to do so, due to the pigtail system that prevent stent from being free and pass out, that’s why the unusual discomfort and irritation symptoms can be encountered, approximately up to 80% of the patients being reported on the stent discomfort. So, it is simplicity for most of patient to experiencing the stent discomfort. Here are the symptoms of stent-related discomfort and the chance to face up.

• Urinary frequency – 50 to 60%
• Urinary urgency – 57 to 60%
• Irritative during urination – 40%
• Incomplete emptying – 76%
• Flank discomfort – 19 to 32%
• Suprapubic discomfort – 30%
• Bloody urination – 25%

Good news is all stent-related symptoms will be disappeared when we remove the ureteral stent. If you have any questions on the ureteral stent, you can discuss with your trusted urologist or would be honor if you text me. See you in next article!