Why Stents?

Stents are a necessary evil for most kidney stone surgery. They act to relieve obstruction from swelling of the ureter after surgery. While data suggests that stent placement after routine ureteroscopy is likely not necessary, most urologists in the United States leave stents after surgery.

 

How long will the stent remain in my body?

The stent typically will remain in place for approximately 7-10 days. It will be removed in the office. The procedure to remove it does not require any anesthesia and takes about 1 minute. A flexible camera scope is placed into the bladder allowing the surgeon to see the stent and remove it. This is generally extremely well tolerated.