Colombo: A Sri Lankan man has broken the world record for having the biggest ever kidney stone.
The enormous, onion-like lump that belonged to retired soldier Canistus Coonghe was even bigger than his actual kidney. Guinness World Records claimed it was 5.26 inches (913.37 cm) long and 4.15 inches (10.55 cm) wide.
In addition, the kidney stone in the 62-year-old weighed 800 gm (1.76lb). This is comparable to a large box of cereal or a loaf of bread. Coonghe's mass is now the biggest and heaviest ever recorded. Dr Kugadas Sutharshan, the surgeon who removed it during an operation on June 1 at Army Hospital, Colombo, said that despite it being lodged in his right kidney, his organs worked fine.
If it caused him any agony, the surgeons did not tell. Even minor ones, though, can be excruciating. Kidney stones often pass through your urine and are little larger than a small pebble. They are composed of minerals like calcium. Roughly one in ten people get kidney stones at some point in their lifetime.
Pain is felt when they pass down the ureters from the kidneys to the bladder. Without treatment, they can cause infections and damage the organ.
One option for dealing with them is so-called ‘conservative’ treatment, where nature is left to take its course. Patients are given painkillers but otherwise told to grin and bear it. Other methods include surgical removal or blasting them with high-frequency shock waves, to shatter them into tiny fragments. The method chosen often depends on how big the stones are and where they are positioned.