Hyderabad: Doctors at a Hyderabad hospital have performed a complex procedure to remove kidney stones from a four-month-old baby boy, said to be the world's youngest patient to undergo such a procedure.

Three stones of size 8 to 9 mm from each kidney were removed by the doctors at Preeti Urology & Kidney Hospital.

While kidney stone disease is common in India due to dehydration, malnutrition, usage of excessive salt, excessive intake of non-vegetarian food, the ailment is not common among children. Finding it in new-born babies is a rarity, said doctors on Thursday.

The baby was brought to Niloufer Hospital as he was not passing urine, and diagnosed with kidney stones. Doctors at Niloufer referred the case to Preeti Urology & Kidney Hospital, a healthcare institution that specializes in kidney care and has the expertise in performing Retrograde Intra Renal Surgery (RIRS).

According to Dr. V Chandra Mohan, Managing Director, Preeti Urology & Kidney Hospital, who led the team of doctors to perform the procedure, such type of surgery is rare. Few centres from China and the US have done the procedure on children. "But for first time in the world we performed RIRS on both the kidneys simultaneously for four-month-old baby," he said.

RIRS is an endoscopic surgery which allows to reach the kidney from the ureter. A flexible ureteroscope is used for these kinds of procedures. Through this device a laser fiber (Holmium laser) is used to treat the stones, following which the small fragments are removed with a basket.

The same RIRS surgery is done in this baby boy on both the sides of the kidney in a span of just one hour, removing all six stones, three stones from each side, he said.

As in performing this procedure, no cuts are made or stitches used, no bleeding was found, and the baby was discharged in a few days after the procedure.

Dr Chandra Mohan was supported by radiologist Dr P Roopa, urologist Dr Ramakrishna, anaesthetist Dr Pavan and paediatrician Dr Ajay to perform the procedure successfully.

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