How is a ureteral stent removed?

Ureteral stents usually stay in for a few weeks, depending on the procedure you had. With some operations, the stent will stay in place for 6 weeks afterward. Your surgeon will give you the details. To remove most stents, a soft, flexible scope (about the size of a urine catheter) is sent up the urethra to the bladder. A grasper on the scope catches the stent and pulls it out through the urethra. The urologist will put numbing jelly inside the urethra before inserting the scope. You may feel some burning as the scope moves past certain parts of the urethra, but the procedure lasts just a few minutes. Pulling the stent feels a bit like pulling out a bladder catheter. Sometimes a short string is attached to the stent and hangs out of the urethra. In these cases, the stent is removed by pulling the string.