HEALTH - KIDNEY STONES
(Renal Calculi)
What is Renal Calculi (kidney stone)?
Kidney stones are one of the most common disorders of the urinary tract. In the year 2000, patients made 2.7 million visits to health care providers and more than 600,000 patients went to emergency rooms for kidney stone problems. Men tend to be affected more frequently than women. The function of the kidneys is to remove waste products and unwanted water from the blood, in the form of urine. If there is too much of certain waste products in the urine, these substances form crystals. Crystals can then combine to form stones.
A kidney stone is a hard mass developed from crystals that separate from the urine and build up on the inner surfaces of the kidney. Normally, urine contains chemicals that prevent or inhibit the crystals from forming. These inhibitors do not seem to work for everyone, however, so some people form stones. If the crystals remain tiny enough, they will travel through the urinary tract and pass out of the body in the urine without being noticed. However, when they pass down the ureter on their way to the bladder, pain usually occurs with anything but the smallest stone. If a stone gets stuck on its way down the ureter, pain usually occurs in the form of renal colic. The pain comes and goes in waves. Blood may be passed as well, due to the irritation of the lining of the ureter by the sharp-edged stone.
What are the Symptoms?
Most calculi originate within the kidney and proceed distally, creating various degrees of urinary obstruction as they become lodged in narrow areas, including the ureteropelvic junction, pelvic brim, and ureterovesical junction. Location and quality of pain are related to position of the stone within the urinary tract. Severity of pain is related to the degree of obstruction, presence of urethral spasm, and presence of any associated infection. So the symptomatic presentation of renal calculi has been described below:
Flank pain or back pain, which may be:
On one or both sides
Progressive
Severe Colicky
May radiate or move to lower in flank, pelvis, groin, genitals
Nausea, vomiting
Painful urination
Urinary frequency or urgency is increased
Blood in the urine
Rarely, a patient reports positional urinary retention, which is due to the ball-valve effect of a large stone located at the bladder outlet.
Fever with chills
What are the Treatment options?
Sometimes kidney stones are "silent". They are called so because they do not cause symptoms. Infect they are found on x rays taken during a general health exam. If they are small, these stones would likely pass out of the body unnoticed. But many a times there may be complications associated with it, e.g. a urethral stone might be associated with obstruction and upper UTI and this truly is a urologic emergency. So it is very important to consult a urologist. Let us see the treatments offered for renal calculi.
Care at home
A simple and most important lifestyle change to prevent stones is to drink more liquids-water is best. Infect if a person has tendency to form stones, they must drink enough liquids throughout the day to produce at least 2 quarts of urine in every 24-hour period. People who form calcium stones used to be told to avoid dairy products and other foods with high calcium content. But recent studies have shown that foods high in calcium, including dairy products, may help prevent calcium stones. Taking calcium in pill form, however, may increase the risk of developing stones. One may be told to avoid food with added vitamin D and certain types of antacids that have a calcium base. If you have very acidic urine, you may need to eat less meat, fish, and poultry. These foods increase the amount of acid in the urine. The doctors will advice the patient to come for a regular follow ups. This is very important and should not be ignored.
more information
www.urostonecenter.com
www.kidneystoneclinic.com.au
www.kidney.net.nz