|
kidney Stone |
What is a kidney stone?
A kidney stone is a hard mineral and crystalline material formed within the kidney or urinary tract.
Kidney stones are a common cause of blood in the urine and pain in the abdomen, flank, or groin. Kidney stones occur in 1 in 20 people at some time in their life.
What causes kidney stones?
The development of the stones is related to decreased urine volume or increased excretion of stone-forming components such as calcium, oxalate, urate, cystine, xanthine, and phosphate. The stones form in the urine collecting area (the pelvis) of the kidney and may range in size from tiny to staghorn stones the size of the renal pelvis itself.
The cystine stones (below) compared in size to a quarter were obtained from the kidney of a young woman by percutaneous nephrolithotripsy (PNL), a procedure for crushing and removing the dense stubborn stones characteristic of cystinuria.
What are symptoms of kidney stones?
Kidney stones cause pain. The pain with kidney stones is usually of sudden onset, very severe and colicky (intermittent), not improved by changes in position, radiating from the back, down the flank, and into the groin. Nausea and vomiting are common.
| Lower back pain | edema ("water holding") | like lungs edema |
| arms edema | legs edema | abdomen edema |
What factors predispose to the development of kidney stones?
Factors predisposing to kidney stones include recent reduction in fluid intake, increased exercise with dehydration, medications that cause hyperuricemia (high uric acid) and a history of
gout.See our kidney cleanse page for the best kidney cleanse you can find.
More to come...
