Bladder stone 'the same size as baseball' found in ultrasound after woman's horrific pain
Bladder stone 'the same size as baseball' found in ultrasound after woman's horrific pain
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A pensioner who had been paralysed from the chest down for 30 years found out she had a bladder stone the same size as a baseball in her abdomen after undergoing an ultrasound. The 72-year-old woman visited a hospital in China after developing blood in her urine. Doctors had suspected she might have a bladder stone, but when they investigated it further, they discovered a mass measuring about 2.4 inches by 3.1 inches by 3.5 inches - almost as big as a baseball, which on average measures about 2.9 inches across.
Doctors wrote in their report: "A 72-year-old woman with a 30-year history of high thoracic paraplegia was referred to the urology clinic for treatment of a bladder stone. Owing to neurogenic bladder, the patient had a long-term indwelling urethral catheter.
"Two months before presentation, she had started having intermittently bloody urine. An abdominal ultrasound had identified a bladder stone at that time." Researchers wrote on The New England Journal of Medicine that after the huge bladder stone was discovered, a series of tests, including a urine culture, were carried out to clear some bacteria ahead of the extraction procedure.
The woman was also found to be several bladder diverticula, which are pouches in the bladder wall that a person may either be born with or develop later in life. According to the Urology Care Foundation, some common causes of acquired bladder diverticula include blockages in the urinary system, chronic urinary retention and nerve problems that affect bladder control.
