Jaipur docs remove 11,816 gallstones from patient

Surgeons operated on a man here and removed a mind-boggling 11,816 stones from his gallbladder. Describing it as a first-of-its-kind medical feat in India, the Sawai Man Singh Government Hospital said the patient had been critical and in extreme pain. He is now recovering, and the hospital believes its work will go into the record books. The surgery was performed by Dr Jeevan Kankaria, under the guidance of Dr R K Jenaw and with the assistance of Dr Mahendra.

For 46-year-old Vinod, who was unaware of his “stony” gallbladder, the operation was no less than a miracle. A resident of Balakpur in Mathura, he was suffering from abdominal pain for the past one year. When the pain aggravated, Vinod would take painkillers. Finally, a CT scan revealed that he had a swelling in his gallbladder, and he decided to approach the Sawai Man Singh Hospital.

Dr Kankaria, associate professor, department of general and laparoscopic surgery, told DH, “Around mid-November, when the patient consulted us, we advised him medical tests, which revealed the presence of multiple stones in his gallbladder. He was also diabetic. We got him admitted and waited for his blood sugar level to stabilise.”

Though Dr Kankaria is a two-time Guinness Book record holder in laparoscopic surgery, operating Vinod was not a cakewalk. “Vinod’s gallbladder was two times the size of a normal gallbladder, and filled with gallstones sans any bile. For cosmetic reasons, a laparoscopy was performed, making only a 1.2 cm incision, which took around an hour. The size of the stones varied from 3.5 mm to 1.5 mm. After the surgery, we counted 11,816 stones,” Dr Kankaria added.

The hospital has applied for the Limca Book of Records and Guinness Book of World Records. “Until now, a maximum of 3,000 to 4,000 gallstones have been removed in India,” Dr Kankaria said. Vinod was discharged within 24 hours of the surgery. During a visit to the hospital for a check-up, he told DH, “For me and my family, it is a miracle come true. For the past one year, I was knocking on the doors of different hospitals in Mathura and AIIMS, Delhi, but finally I found relief at Jaipur’s SMS Hospital.”