When 62-year-old Canistus Coonghe went in for surgery on June 1, he probably didn’t think he’d come out a Guinness World Record holder.
But the retired Sri Lanka Army soldier is in the record books after military surgeons removed what has been declared the world’s largest and heaviest kidney stone.
The grapefruit-sized growth measures about 5.26 inches long ― which Guinness World Records notes was bigger than Coonghe’s 4.6-inch kidney. The stone weighed 1.76 pounds, easily surpassing the previous record for the heaviest ever found, according to Guinness.
Dr. Kugadas Sutharshan removed the stone from Coonghe through an incision in his kidney’s pelvis, a procedure called open pyelolithotomy, according to USA Today.
Despite the obvious obstruction, doctors said Coonghe’s kidney was functioning normally. Although his liver, gallbladder, pancreas and spleen were also normally sized, his prostate was enlarged.
Coonghe is still recovering from the surgery, but is doing well, according to Guinness.
An X-ray of the stone pre-surgery shows just how big it was in Coonghe’s body.
And this is how it looked after surgery.
The previous largest kidney stone was a 5.11-inch growth removed from Vilas Ghuge of India in 2004. The previous record holder for heaviest stone belonged to Pakistan’s Wazir Muhammad, whose 1.36-pound growth was taken out in 2008.
Kidney stones are typically formed when minerals and salts crystallize into hard deposits. The stones are sometimes caused by chronic dehydration and certain medical conditions, such as gout and inflammatory bowel disease, and can cause a great deal of pain.
Most are eliminated through urination. Others require shock wave therapy or surgery.