Surgeons in northern India removed a kidney stone measuring 5.2 centimeters, about 2 inches across, from a man in his 60s without breaking it apart. They lifted it out intact through a small cut in the kidney's collecting funnel during a three-port laparoscopic operation, a technique known as laparoscopic pyelolithotomy.
The case was published in the Journal of Surgical Case Reports on Aug. 31 as part of the journal's September issue. The authors are from the general surgery department at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Gorakhpur, with Dharmendra Kumar Pipal as corresponding author.
