Treatment for kidney stones
Kidneys help in extracting waste and fluid from the blood which results in urine. When there is a lot of a particular type of waste in the blood and not enough fluid it can result in clogging the kidney. These come together and form lumps/stones. Few people are more prone to getting kidney stones; men are more prone than women. You may get stones if the following are true.
- You have a previous history of kidney stones.
- Family history indicates kidney stones.
- You do not drink enough water.
- Your diet contains more of sodium, sugar or potassium
- You may be obese.
- You have had an intestinal surgery.
- You have polycystic kidney disease
- Your condition causes your urine to have high contents of uric acid, oxalate, calcium, and cystine.
- Your condition causes swelling in the joints and bowels.
- If you take diuretics/water pills or antacids with calcium
If you suffer from a large kidney stone, you will have the following symptoms:
- Pain while urinating
- Blood in the urine
- Sharp pain in the back / lower abdomen
- Nausea and vomiting
- If you have these symptoms, contact your doctor for advice.
Preventing kidney stones
They always say that “prevention is better than cure.” While dealing with kidney stones, prevention is the best option. Drinking lots of fluids daily helps prevent kidney stones. You should drink at least 12 cup of fluids daily. If you suffer from a kidney disease, then you need to limit the intake of fluids, which you need to ask your doctor. You also need to limit salt/sodium, animal protein, i.e., meat/eggs in the diet, to help prevent kidney stones. If the doctor can find out what the stone is made of he/she can restrict or make specific changes to your diet to prevent future stones.
Treatment for how to dissolve kidney stones
Sometimes it is your health that makes an individual more likely to have stones in the kidney. Keep in mind never to stop a treatment without asking your doctor, including that for kidney stones. If the kidney stones are blocking the urinary tract, then it could cause even more pain, making you require treatment even more urgently. For the doctor to decide on the treatment, he/she needs you to undergo tests, i.e., blood tests, urine tests, X-ray, CT scan, etc.
- If the stone is small, then the doctor will ask you to drink lots of fluid to naturally push the stone out of the urinary tract. If it is large and block the urinary tract, another type of treatment for kidney stones may be required.
- One type of treatment for kidney stones is called lithotripsy, which is a shock wave. The shock can break the stone into many pieces. These small pieces pass through the urinary tract. This treatment for kidney stones takes around 45 minutes and is done under anesthesia.
- Another type of treatment for kidney stones is ureteroscopy. This treatment is also done under anesthesia. The doctor removes the stone with the help of tube like tool or finds and breaks the stone. A small stone is easy to remove but a large stone needs to be broken. The broken stones need to be so small that they can pass through the urinary tract.
- Percutaneous nephrolithotomy is a surgery that is performed to remove the kidney stone. A tube is inserted into the kidney to remove the stone. This requires a two/three day stay in the hospital to recover.
- For Cystoscopy, the doctor uses a cystoscope to check the urethra and bladder to find stones. The doctor inserts the cystoscope/ureteroscope to check the rest of the tract. Once discovered, the doctor removes it or breaks it into small pieces. The procedure requires a day in the hospital.
- After any of these procedures, the urologist/doctor leaves a thin flexible tube, a ureteral stent, in the urinary tract to help the flow of urine. After removal the stone or its pieces is sent for various tests.
- Hyperparathyroidism also creates a lot of calcium in the blood leading to development of calcium stones. Treatment includes surgery and removal of the parathyroid gland. The removal cures a person completely of hyperparathyroidism and prevents kidney stones. Treatment for Calcium stones is potassium citrate that raises the pH and citrate level in the urine.
- For Uric acid stones the doctor may recommend Diuretics or water pills also help the body get rid of water; allopurinol is also used to reduce the high levels of uric acid in the blood. Another medicine is potassium citrate.
- Struvite stones need antibacterial medicines. Acetohydroxamic acid is an antibiotic is used to prevent a long-term infection.
- For Cystine stones the doctor gives mercaptopropionyl glycine, which is an antioxidant for heart problems and Potassium citrate.
Some stones may give serious side effects. You need to describe the entire health history to the health official to prevent side effects and you need to inform him also about side effects from medicines you take to prevent stones.
