How to treat female urethral stones

The common symptoms of urethral stones in women are: lower abdominal pain, frequent urination, and in severe cases, red urine. If this continues for a long time, it may even cause uremia. Therefore, we must pay attention to it so as not to miss the best treatment time and cause the condition to worsen. Currently, the treatment of urethral stones has become relatively safe and mature. The stones can be removed directly and accurately through the use of a urethroscope, and the body can fully recover after surgical treatment. So how to treat female urethral stones? Let’s find out together.

What are urethral stones?

Urethral stones are a complication of bladder stones. Common symptoms include frequent urination, but only a small amount of blood in the urine is excreted or there is no urine at all.

People often feel severe pain when palpating the bladder in the posterior abdomen, and long-term urinary retention can cause uremia. Therefore, when these symptoms appear, early treatment is needed. Only in this way can the pain be alleviated and health be restored as soon as possible.

Diagnosis of urethral stones:

1. Difficulty urinating, often with acute urinary retention.

2. Pain and hematuria: Posterior urethral stones can cause perineal pain and radiate to the glans penis. The pain of anterior urethral stones is localized to the site of stone impaction, and there is urethral bleeding.

3. During physical examination, stones may be felt during urethral or anal examination.

4. The catheter is not easy to insert and the metal probe may hit the stones.

5. X-ray examination can show the shadow of urethral stones and has a high diagnostic value for posterior urethral stones.

Treatment of urethral stones

1. Anterior urethral stone removal

If stones close to the external urethral orifice and small stones located in the navicular fossa cannot be discharged on their own, they can be injected with liquid paraffin and then squeezed out, or they can be removed with forceps or tweezers. After injecting liquid paraffin into the anterior urethral stones, the stones can be pushed toward the external urethral opening by hand, and then the stones can be clamped out with forceps or tweezers. You can also use a probe to pull it out, or bend the probe into a hook shape to hook the stone out. If the above method does not work, you can cut the external urethral opening, inject sterile liquid paraffin into the urethra, and then squeeze and clamp it to remove the stone.

2. Urethral incision and lithotomy

For patients with severe anterior urethral stones that cannot be removed through the urethral orifice, anterior urethral lithotomy can be performed. There is a possibility of urinary fistula after urethrotomy in the penis, so urethrotomy for lithotomy should be avoided as much as possible. At this time, the stone can be pushed toward the bulbar urethra, and the stone can be removed by cutting it open at the bulbar urethra as much as possible.

3. Treatment of posterior urethral stones

For posterior urethral stones, a urethral probe can be used to push the stones back into the bladder, and then treatment can be performed under endoscopy using methods such as forceps lithotripsy, pneumatic ballistic lithotripsy, and laser lithotripsy. Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy or suprapubic cystotomy can also be performed to remove the stones. If the stone is large and impacted, it can be removed through the perineum or suprapubic incision. If the stone is in the urethral diverticulum, the diverticulum must be removed at the same time. Patients with urethral obstruction and infection need to be treated together.

4. Urethroscope Lithotomy

If urethral stenosis hinders the discharge of stones or the stones are severely impacted, the stricture can be cut open under urethroscopy before removing the stones. If the stone is large and has been embedded in the urethra for a long time, pneumatic lithotripsy or laser lithotripsy can be performed under endoscopy. If the stone cannot be removed, urethrotomy can be performed to remove the stone.

Some patients, after suffering from urinary stones, confuse them with other diseases and receive incorrect treatment. Therefore, in daily life, when you suspect that you have this disease, you must distinguish it from urethral stenosis, nonspecific urethritis, urethral foreign body and other diseases. This will help avoid incorrect treatment and ensure that you recover as soon as possible.