How should I prepare for a cystolitholapaxy?

Your healthcare provider will give you instructions on how to prepare for surgery. These could include instructions about:

What medications to stop taking in the days before surgery. Make sure you tell your surgeon about any medications you take each day. Don’t stop taking a medication unless your provider tells you to.

When you should stop eating and drinking. Most providers ask you to avoid food and drink after midnight the night before surgery.

Arranging for a ride home or for care in your home in the first several hours after surgery.

What you can expect the day of the procedure and afterward.

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Cystolitholapaxy is a minimally invasive procedure surgeons use to break up and remove bladder stones.

A cystoscope is a long, thin tube with a camera on the end of it. Your provider inserts a cystoscope into your urethra and into your bladder. The cystoscope shows your surgeon exactly where the stones are in your bladder. Then, they use a tiny laser to break apart the stones into tiny pieces. Finally, your provider washes the stones out of your bladder using fluids.

Before the procedure begins, your healthcare provider will give you anesthesia, so you don’t feel pain. It can either be local or general. Local anesthesia works by blocking pain in a specific area of your body. With general anesthesia, you’re asleep for the procedure.

The procedure is relatively short, about 30 to 60 minutes. You go home the same day after you recover in a recovery room.

Most people receive general anesthesia. When you have general anesthesia, you’re asleep and won’t feel any pain. Some people receive local anesthesia, which means you’re awake during the procedure but don’t feel pain in your groin area.

No, it shouldn’t be painful. Your healthcare provider will give you anesthesia, so you don’t feel any pain.

It’s normal to experience certain symptoms after a cystolitholapaxy. Some things you can expect in the first 72 hours after surgery are:

Blood or small blood clots in your pee.

Small stones in your pee.

Burning sensation when you pee.

Ask your healthcare provider what’s normal after the procedure and when you should worry. It’s a good idea to avoid alcohol, driving or operating heavy machinery or signing any important documents in the first 24 hours after surgery due to leftover anesthesia still being in your system.

Some people may have a catheter in their bladder after surgery to help them pee. This is a tube that takes pee from your bladder and transports it to a bag you wear outside of your body. It may stay in place for up to a week while your body heals, and then, your provider will remove it.

Other self-care instructions may include:

Drink lots of water after surgery.

Take acetaminophen or ibuprofen for mild pain according to the instructions on the label. Contact your healthcare provider if you experience pain that’s unbearable or doesn’t improve.

Take antibiotics if your provider prescribes them to you (to prevent infection).

Take time to rest for the first 24 to 48 hours.