In Hyderabad, doctors remove discarded stent, stones from man’s kidney located next to heart

“After removal of stone, they put a stent on for a good three weeks to bring down swelling etc. However, the stent was not removed. So, now, the stent is broken and we found the broken fragments and stones inside the left kidney. To our surprise, we found that the kidney was in the thorax (chest cavity) which was just by the side of the heart and the left lung, making it very complicated,” Dr Devraj told indianexpress.com.

According to the doctor, even the patient was unaware of this congenital condition as in the previous case of ureteral surgery, the stone was in the lower ureter and it was removed through the abdomen itself.

The doctors were in a fix because according to them, there is no literature available on what to do in such scenarios. Dr Devraj said he had not seen a case of thoracic kidney in his 17 years at the NIMS. “So we passed the endoscope and collapsed his left lung to ensure the safety of the heart and the lung before puncturing the left kidney. The patient was placed on single-lung ventilation during the surgery and a keyhole endoscopic procedure was performed on his left kidney in the chest to remove the stone along with the retained stent under video thoracoscopic guidance,” said Dr Raj, adding that the patient has recovered well post-surgery.

Dr Ch Ram Reddy, professor and head of the department, said that the patient was admitted and underwent the procedure under the Telangana Aarogyasri government scheme at free cost, which otherwise would have cost around Rs 5 lakh. Dr Devraj added that the department performs around 6,500 surgeries a year and 100 to 120 kidney transplants a year. “It is not just about the money, kidneys in the chest cavity are extremely rare and with no reported cases of a thoracic kidney with retained stent and stone, no one would have even attempted this. A small mistake or hole in the heart, the patient would bleed to death,” added Dr Devraj.