If Ive Had Kidney Stones Once Will I Get Them Again
If youve had a kidney stone, you are 50% more likely to develop another within 5-7 years. Kidney stones increase your risk of developing chronic kidney disease, so its important you continue to maintain a balanced diet and drink lots of water to help reduce your risk for future issues and you may need medications to help reduce your risk for making future stones. If you have had more than one kidney stone or kidney stones in both kidneys, your clinician may recommend an evaluation for more specific treatments to prevent future stones.
What Is The Makeup Of The Staghorn Calculi
Most staghorn calculi are infection stones composed of struvite and/or carbonate apatite. Sometimes, cystine, uric acid, whewellite and brushite stones also assume a staghorn configuration when located in the kidney. It is very important in stone crushing to know the composition and architecture of the stones.
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Is It Ok To Leave A Kidney Stone Alone
Small stones in the kidney may be left alone if they are not causing pain or infection. Some people choose to have their small stones removed. They do this because they are afraid the stone will unexpectedly start to pass and cause pain.
Can kidney stones damage your kidneys?
Kidney stones are solid crystals formed from the salts in urine. They are sometimes called renal calculi. Kidney stones can block the flow of urine and cause infection, kidney damage or even kidney failure.
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Minimally Invasive Surgical Treatments For Kidney Stones
Factors that influence stone passage include the stones size and location. The larger a stone is, the less likely that it will pass without surgery. Surgical treatment is usually recommended for stones 0.5 centimeters in size and larger, as well as for patients who fail conservative management. The procedures used today to remove stones are minimally invasive and highly effective. The most common techniques include shock wave lithotripsy, ureteroscopy with laser lithotripsy, and percutaneous nephrolithotomy. Our endourology team performs over a thousand of these procedures every year, using the latest technology.
Shockwave lithotripsy is the least invasive procedure and is done on an outpatient basis. Using X-ray or ultrasound imaging to identify the stone, shockwaves are applied from outside the body to break the stone into smaller fragments that are then passed in the urine. SWL is an option for kidney stones up to 2 centimeters in size that are not located in the lower part of kidney, depending on other patient factors.
Percutaneous nephrolithotomy is the best option for larger kidney stones or when there are other complicating anatomic factors. PCNL involves making a half-inch incision in the back through which the surgeon extracts stones using a nephroscope. Patients typically require a one-night hospital stay, followed by a brief recovery period at home.
If You Think You Have A Kidney Stone
If you have been diagnosed with a kidney stone, please call 362-8200 to schedule an appointment for evaluation and treatment we will do our best to make sure you are seen promptly. You may be directed to the emergency department if you are experiencing intractable nausea, vomiting, pain or fever so that urgent treatment can be given.
We have a very limited number of same-day appointments therefore, it is likely that you will be directed to the emergency department for rapid evaluation. There, they will obtain scans and labs that will help confirm the diagnosis of kidney stones. From that information, we can make an informed decision about your treatment.
If you have recently passed a stone, you should have close follow-up with a urologist. Our team of stone experts can accommodate you at any of our clinic locations.
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Avoiding Recurrence Of Kidney Stones
If you have had one kidney stone, some tips that may help to prevent a second stone forming include:
- Talk to your doctor about the cause of the previous stone.
- Ask your doctor to check whether the medications you are on could be causing your stones. Do not stop your medications without talking to your doctor.
- Get quick and proper treatment of urinary infections.
- Avoid dehydration. Drink enough fluids to keep your urine volume at or above two litres a day. This can halve your risk of getting a second stone by lowering the concentration of stone-forming chemicals in your urine.
- Avoid drinking too much tea or coffee. Juices may reduce the risk of some stones, particularly orange, grapefruit and cranberry. Ask your doctor for advice.
- Reduce your salt intake to lower the risk of calcium-containing stones. Dont add salt while cooking and leave the saltshaker off the table. Choose low- or no-salt processed foods.
- Avoid drinking more than one litre per week of drinks that contain phosphoric acid, which is used to flavour carbonated drinks such as cola and beer.
- Always talk to your doctor before making changes to your diet.
Drinking mineral water is fine it cannot cause kidney stones because it contains only trace elements of minerals.
Keeping Kidney Stones In Check: Prevention And Treatment Options
Posted March 08, 2021 by Dr. Joseph Dankoff
Listen to this episode of the Healthy Vitals Podcast.
Dr. Joseph Dankoff discusses the prevention, treatment, and management with kidney stones and how to keep them in check.
Transcription:
Scott Webb: Kidney stones can be painful. And if they don’t pass and are left untreated, we can develop sepsis and that can be deadly. The good news is that they often pass on their own and, when they don’t, there are minimally invasive surgical options to help remove them. And joining me today to help us understand kidney stones and how we can prevent them is Dr. Joseph Dankoff. He’s a physician with the Summa Health Urology Medical Group.
This is Healthy Vitals, a podcast from Summa Health. I’m Scott Webb. Doctor, thanks so much for your time today. I know you just got out of surgery, so I appreciate it. What are kidney stones and what causes them?
Dr. Joseph Dankoff: Well, I could certainly win the Nobel prize if I could tell you absolutely what causes kidney stones. The kidneys filter a lot of poisons out of our system and the poisons go down into your bladder and you expel it to the outside world. And if calcification and other products clump together and don’t let the river of urine flow normally from the kidneys out to the bladder, then those clumping, those stones will cause blockage inside the urinary tract and that’s what causes pain that people perceive.
Dr. Joseph Dankoff: All right. You too. Take care. Thanks so much.
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How Common Is Ureteral Obstruction
Ureteral obstructions are fairly common. They are more common in men over 60 because the prostate becomes enlarged as men age. The enlarged prostate can block the flow of urine and result in buildup of urine in the bladder. It can also push up against the ureter and cause a blockage. Another form of bladder outflow blockage is by buildup of pressure in the urinary bladder because of an injury to the nerves or weak muscleswhich makes it more difficult for the ureters to empty.
Other causes of blockages can include:
- Kidney stones: This form of blockage is very common and can happen to both men and women. Kidney stones can affect young and old patients.
- Scarring: When the tube that transfers urine from the kidney to the bladder is scarred on the inside, you can experience a blockage. This can also be caused by a birth defect.
- Pressure from outside structures: You can also have a blockage when something outside of the ureter presses on it. This could be caused by a tumor or another nearby organ.
Surgical Treatment Of Kidney Stones
If a kidney stone does not pass out of the body with fluids and pain medications, it may have become lodged in the ureter. A variety of procedures may be considered to remove the stone. These include:
-
, in which specialized instruments are passed into the ureter through the bladder to withdraw a kidney stone that has become lodged in the lower third of the ureter. A similar procedure may be used to remove or crush the kidney stone using a laser or ultrasonic probe.
- , a procedure that is performed for a kidney stone located in the upper ureter or in the kidney. In this procedure, the kidney stone is pulverized by a machine using painless high-energy sound waves .
In rare cases in which kidney damage has occurred, it may be necessary to remove the affected kidney. This surgery is a .
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When To Go To The Hospital For Kidney Stones
Kidney stones usually arent damaging to your overall health, but some kidney stone symptoms may require you to visit your primary care provider or the emergency room. You should see a doctor right away if you experience:
- Severe pain that makes it hard to get comfortable
- Nausea and vomiting combined with pain
- Fever and chills combined with pain
- Blood in your urine
- Difficulty passing urine
Can Kidney Stones Make You Die
At the very worst, people lose kidneys because they think stones have passed but they never do, and their kidney ends up nonfunctioning, says Dr. Benway. Blockage and infection together make the stone act like an abscess, and people can become critically ill and can even die in that scenario.
Is kidney stone pain constant?
Pain that comes and goes in waves and changes in intensity As the kidney stone moves through your urinary tract, youll feel pain differently. With a backache, the pain is usually constant.
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Kidney Stone Signs & Symptoms
Small kidney stones or kidney stones that do not move and remain in the kidney may not produce any symptoms. A small kidney stone even may pass out of the body without causing pain or other symptoms. Severe, sharp, or stabbing pain in the middle area of the lower back is the main symptom of a large kidney stone that moves out of the kidney. The pain may spread to the abdomen or groin. Other signs and symptoms include:
- Blood in the urine
If you have a high fever and unbearable pain in addition to these symptoms, call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
Do Kidneys Have Anything To Do With Poop
The kidneys filter about 120 to 150 quarts of blood to produce about 1-2 quarts of waste. As the blood is filtered, the waste is drained from the kidneys into the bladder as urine. Your body is a closed system you can only get rid of waste through sweating, breathing, and urinating/bowel movements.
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Some Of The Major Risk Factors For Kidney Stones Are:
- Family or personal history of the condition
- Inflammatory bowel diseases
- Some specific medications
One of the major factors that increase the risks of kidney stones is the production of less than 1-liter urine per day. This is probably the reason why premature babies with kidney problems are more prone to developing kidney stones.
Kidney stones do not have any symptoms until they move around in the kidney. These are also sometimes called silent stones. However, once they start moving around in the kidney and pass into the ureter, symptoms may start surfacing. At this stage, you may experience severe and excruciating pain in the lower back. Men may experience pain in the groin area as well. Other signs and symptoms of kidney stones include brown or red-colored urine, blood in the urine, urinating small amounts of urine and pain while urinating.
Also, kidney stones can worsen over time. If left untreated, kidney stones can lead to a number of complications.
Pressure Or Pain In The Lower Back
In some cases, a stone may become stuck in the ureter. The ureter is the tube that carries urine from the kidney to the bladder. A blockage here causes urine to back up in the kidney, resulting in pressure and pain sensations in the lower back. These symptoms may occur on the left or right side, depending on which kidney is affected.
According to the University of Chicago, pain or pressure are usually the first signs of a kidney stone. In some cases, the symptoms may be very subtle and build up slowly. In other cases, they may come on suddenly, with no early warning signs. This pain can be severe and may lead to nausea or vomiting, or both. People often experience sharp, stabbing pain, and common measures such as rest or lying down do not relieve it.
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Lithotripsy For Kidney Stones
Lithotripsy involves the use of shock waves. These shock waves break the larger kidney stones into smaller ones. Once this is achieved, the small pieces can easily pass through the urinary tract and can be expelled out of the body through the urine. The procedure gets completed in less than an hour and is performed under general anesthesia.
Lithotripsy is a painless and very effective procedure. If you too are going through the pain and troubles of kidney stones, get in touch with Pristyn Care. We are more than happy to help you lead a pain-free and trouble-free life.
Be Aware Of Kidney Stone Before It Leads To Chronic Kidney Disease
5 minute read
Kidney stones, also known as renal calculi or nephrolithiasis are hard deposits made of minerals that form inside the kidneys. Although kidney stones can strike anyone at any age, men are more susceptible to develop this condition than women. Peak incidence occurs between ages 30 to 40 years. If they are left untreated, serious complications might potentially develop, including infection of the kidney, sepsis, injury to ureter and impaired kidney function that eventually leads to chronic kidney disease. Knowing the warning signs of kidney stone allows for an early diagnosis and effective treatment given in a timely manner before the condition severely progresses.
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What Organs Does A Kidney Stone Affect
Kidney stones have many causes and can affect any part of your urinary tract from your kidneys to your bladder. Often, stones form when the urine becomes concentrated, allowing minerals to crystallize and stick together.
What are the long term effects of kidney stones?
Ask settings. Are there long-term consequences of having a kidney stone? Kidney stones do not usually cause any lasting damage, but in some cases large kidney stones can block the ureter, the thin tube that connect the kidney to the bladder. This can increase the chance of getting an infection and, if left untreated, can lead to kidney damage.
Foods That Can Cause Kidney Stones
Your diet can contribute to the development of kidney stones. A good rule of thumb is to avoid eating too much salty food and meat. High-oxalate foods like spinach, rhubarb, almonds, beets, bran cereal, raspberries and sweet potatoes can contribute to kidney stones. Supplemental Vitamin C, fructose and sucrose can also increase kidney stones.
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Follow These Top Warning Signs Indicating You May Have Kidney Stones
About one out of every ten people will have a kidney stone at some point in their lives, according to the National Kidney Foundation, with stones occurring about twice as often in men. Kidney stones have become more common during the past couple of decades. That increase could be due to the concurrent rise in obesity, which is a potential risk factor for kidney stones.
Kidney stones form when minerals and salts in your blood create hard concretions inside your kidneys. Normally, your kidneys filter out these materials, but when concentrations are high or when your kidneys are overworked or arent working normally, the substances can collect and clump together, forming sharp crystals. Very small stones may be excreted on their own when you urinate. But sometimes, the crystals get stuck and thats typically when most symptoms begin.
Larger kidney stones usually cause significant symptoms almost right away. With smaller stones, the symptoms can be less obvious and more difficult to discern. If you have a kidney stone, getting prompt medical care is essential for preventing complications. Heres a list of some of the most common kidney stone symptoms to watch out for.
How Long Do You Stay In Hospital For Kidney Stones
The procedures used to remove large kidney stones percutaneous nephrolithotomy and percutaneous nephrolithotripsy require general anesthesia and a short hospital stay, usually two or three days. The recovery time takes a week or so. Depending on the position of the stone, the procedure itself takes about 20 to 45 minutes.
How long does it take to pass a kidney stone after lithotripsy?
Most stones pass within 24 hours after the procedure. But it can take as long as several weeks. If you have a large stone, you may need to come back for several treatments. In some cases lithotripsy does not break up the stones.
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Kidney Stone Signs And Symptoms
Kidney stones are conglomerations of crystals that form when concentrations of minerals in the urine become very high. As their name implies, stones almost always start in the kidneys. They may cause problems there, or may not be noticed until they move into the ureter . Once stones enter into the ureter the can obstruct the drainage of urine which generally causes symptoms such as pain in the upper back or lower abdomen, nausea, vomiting, and blood in the urine. Many stones will pass down the ureter, into the bladder and then be voided with urine. Occasionally stones can remain lodged in the ureter or within the bladder.