Understanding Ureteral Stents

Hello, my name is Justin Ziemba

and today we’re gonna talk about ureteral stents

and devices used to drain the urinary system

after your kidney stone surgery.

As you’re probably aware, the urinary system is responsible

for draining urine out of the body.

And one of the things that we can use

after surgery to help that process both for healing as well

as to bypass any blockage

of the urinary tract from things such

as kidney stones are objects like ureteral stents

and nephrostomy tubes.

So here I have an example of what is a nephrostomy tube

and a ureteral stent is very similar,

has a little coil on the end that allows it

to stay in place in the urinary tracts,

sometimes a little drainage option to allow it to connect

to a bag to drain urine from the body

or it’ll be all on the inside of the body.

A ureteral stent is usually made out of plastic

that’s medical grade.

And like I said before, it can be used to unblock the urinary tracts

to allow urine to flow around a

blockage such as a kidney stone and

what happens is when these stents are inserted is they are

usually temporary.

They often have a maximum life expectancy in the body

of about three months,

but often are changed much sooner

after surgery, often these can be put in temporarily

to allow the healing process to occur

and then be taken out either with a small scope

or via something like a little string.

When they are in place, they often can cause

symptoms such as feeling like the urge to go to the bathroom

and urinate more frequent,

frequently feeling like you don’t empty your bladder

completely, or issues such as burning or blood in the urine.

Those are very common and they do resolve once the tube

or the stent is removed.

I hope that explains urinary stents

and other drainage tubes.

Thanks for listening. Take care.