Southwest Florida's Health and Wellness Magazine Health and Wellness Articles
More than ten times a week, someone experiencing kidney stone symptoms is wheeled into surgery at Physicians Regional Medical Center. “We tend to see an uptick in the summer when people are outside more,” said Dr. Barckley Storey, a urologist with Physicians Regional Medical Group. Dr. Storey has pushed for a system to speed up kidney stone care, such as a Kidney Stone Center.
Florida sits in a stone belt, meaning it is a warm weather state which has a high number of kidney stones. The warm weather isn’t the cause of these tiny stones, but the intense heat can possibly lead to dehydration, triggering the formation of a kidney stone. “Because of the heat and humidity, people are really dehydrated a lot of the time. And we’re having difficulty getting all these people seen as fast as possible in the ER” Storey said.
As a creative solution, Physicians Regional launched a dedicated Kidney Stone Center. This center allows patients to be diagnosed and treated the same or the next day, skipping the line and stress of an ER. The Kidney Stone Clinics are located conveniently at Physicians Regional – Pine Ridge Hospital and Collier Hospital.
“People that end up in these clinics are here, because they’re already in pain, they’re already in discomfort, and we can fast track getting them to the operating room,” Storey said. “Because we have urologists that are in both locations all the time, we usually can get people in fairly quickly.”
If you’re someone who is familiar with kidney stones or have a loved one who suffers from them, you may know a procedure that is typically performed is called a Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy (PCNL). The word ‘percutaneous’ means the surgeon goes through the skin to get to the kidney, and ‘nephrolithotomy’ means the kidney stone will be removed from the kidney. The procedure starts with a small incision in the kidney. Then, reach the kidney through the back with a small scope and tool to break the kidney stone up into smaller pieces, and suction the pieces of the stone out.
What you may not know is that there is now a new procedure available to those afflicted, called a Minimally Invasive Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy or a Mini PCNL. Dr. Storey is the first physician to perform this procedure in the Southwest Florida area as well as in our Kidney Stone Center. “With this new procedure from Olympus we are basically able to remove large kidney stones through an incision that’s a quarter of the size of previous incisions. Incisions that were the size of a thumb are now smaller than a pencil,” says Dr. Storey.
Unlike traditional PCNL, Mini PCNL is performed with smaller tools through a smaller opening. As a result, patients experience less pain and discomfort, no drainage tube, and a faster recovery.
This new technique also resulted in significantly less post-operative pain and earlier return to work and daily activities. The procedure also is more likely to clear all stones in one setting whereas other techniques like extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) usually require several attempts. Dr. Storey says, “No more tubes in the back, decreased bleeding and pain, and a shorter hospital stay are the biggest and most positive differences for patients that have this new procedure.”
Out of the three other centers in the state, Physicians Regional Healthcare System is not only the first organization to offer this procedure on this coast, but also the first in Southwest Florida.
Dr. Benjamin Barckley Storey, board certified in urology, specializes in a broad range of urologic conditions affecting men and women. His practice serves those with kidney stones, prostate disease, stress urinary incontinence and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), as well as prostate and renal cancer.
Dr. Storey’s offices are located in Naples at
Physicians Regional- Collier Blvd,
8340 Collier Blvd. and Physicians
Regional- Marco Island,
1839 San Marco Road. For more information or to schedule an appointment, please call 239-963-2499, or schedule online at PhysiciansRegionalMedicalGroup.com.
