Kidney stone surgeries ensure that the kidneys remove waste materials from the body so that life can continue. On the other hand, it also has the task of filtering some substances necessary for the body. The kidneys, which have the task of adjusting their levels, are at issue when stones form due to problems in the mechanism related to the task.
It is still not clearly known why these mechanisms are disrupted. Experts believe that kidney stone disease occurs due to various factors, from nutrition to genetics, from geography to gender. For this reason, people who research how to pass kidney stones often have this disease in their genetics.
These stones sometimes do not show any symptoms for a long time. Sometimes they fall into the urinary tract and cause patients to apply to health institutions with unbearable pain. Kidney stone surgeries are not applied to every patient with kidney stones. The size of the stone and the person’s probability of passing it are taken into consideration.
How to Identify Kidney Stones?
Kidney stone symptoms: While some minerals in the blood are excreted from the kidneys, they are dissolved in the urine in a certain solubility balance. However, due to various reasons, the solubility of the crystals decreases and accumulates, and the crystals precipitate in the chamber-like collecting systems in the kidney. And kidney stones are formed.
Calcium oxalate stones constitute approximately 80 percent of the stones. Apart from these, stones related to infections, uric acid stones, cystine stones, calcium phosphate stones are also seen.
Kidney stone surgeries cannot be performed on every patient with kidney stones. In kidney stone formation, factors related to nutrition are especially important. The most important of these is not consuming enough fluids. High animal protein intake and sodium consumption should not be high in nutritional habits. Excessive consumption of refined sugars, excessive consumption of coffee or cocoa-like foods are among the causes. Urinary tract infections, structural disorders in the kidney, some medications and genetic factors are effective in stone formation.
Kidney Stone Symptoms
The most common complaint in patients wondering who can have kidney stone surgery is pain. Very small stones can pass through the urinary tract without being noticed. However, as some stones grow larger, they can get stuck in the tube (ureter) that connects the kidney and bladder.
In some patients, the pain is so mild that it is not noticeable. In some, it is extremely severe. Pain caused by kidney stones is usually seen as pain that appears and disappears intermittently. Patients usually describe the pain as “flank pain”. Apart from this pain, kidney stone symptoms in women and men are as follows:
These include pain while urinating, blood in the urine, nausea or vomiting, frequent urination, urinating small amounts or difficulty urinating, fever and chills.
In some patients, kidney stones are detected incidentally as a result of examinations performed for other purposes, without any complaints.
Even if detected, kidney stone surgery is not the only solution. People can get rid of this disease with the solution suggestions offered by the doctor.
Diagnostic Methods of the Disease
What causes kidney stones? The patient’s history and physical examination are the first step in kidney stone disease. Here, supporting the detected findings and clarifying the diagnosis is the other step. Urinary system radiography and ultrasonography are performed. When these two examinations are used together, a large portion of kidney stones are detected.
Urine analysis is performed to detect urinary tract infections and bleeding in urine, which are sometimes seen due to stones. In addition, blood tests are used to detect the nature of stones or to investigate their causes. It is aimed to detect very small stones or to see the kidney anatomy in patients who are planned to have surgery. Non-contrast Computerized Tomography (CT) is performed. Another method used in breaking kidney stones and evaluating the urinary tract is intravenous pyelography (IVP). A drug that can be detected under x-ray is given through the patient’s vein. And after the blood is filtered from the kidneys, x-rays are taken while the drug passes through the urinary tract. In this way, kidney stones in the body, blocked areas in the urinary tract and blood flow in the kidneys are observed.
Treatment Methods
For kidney stone surgery, doctors will perform a comprehensive examination. The size of the stone in the patient, how it will be removed, and whether surgery is necessary are all very important.
When tests show that kidney stones are passed, the important factors in treatment planning are the size of the stone and its location in the kidney. As the kidney stone size increases, the patient’s chance of passing the stone on its own decreases. In addition, stones located in the upper part of the kidney collecting system are more likely to pass than those located in the lower part.
The type of treatment is determined by the severity of the patient’s pain due to the stone, whether the stone causes any damage to the kidney, and whether it impairs kidney function.
In frequently recurring kidney stones, determining the underlying cause of these stones is important in treatment. For this, detailed laboratory tests should be performed. Calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, uric acid, vitamin D and parathyroid hormone levels in the blood should be checked.
The patient’s urine pH, cystine, uric acid, and oxalate levels in the urine should be examined. And if an underlying metabolic or hormonal cause is detected, treatment is important in the treatment and prevention of kidney stones.
Structural disorders that may exist in the kidney or urinary tract are investigated in detail with radiological examinations. If necessary, they are corrected with kidney stone surgery.
In the case of persistent kidney stones, drug treatment is chosen according to the type of stone. Although the treatment method and the drugs to be used vary, the main purpose of the treatment is to increase the solubility of the crystals in the urine and prevent them from precipitating and forming stones in the kidney.
What can be done to prevent kidney stones?
What causes kidney stones or what can be done to avoid this problem is one of the most frequently asked questions. Increasing fluid intake, especially water, is one of the things that should be done to prevent kidney stones. Under normal conditions, urine should be light yellow. Instead of tea, coffee, fruit juices and acidic drinks, water consumption should be increased. Because some of these drinks cause fluid loss. Or, they invite other problems due to the sugar they contain. It should not be forgotten that people who do sports, do intense physical work outdoors should drink more water.
Consuming plenty of vegetables and fruits is also very important. Vegetables and fruits reduce the amount of acid in the urine. Therefore, vegetables should be consumed together with animal foods that have a risk of increasing uric acid levels.
It is highly probable that people who do not pay attention to these issues will have their stones removed through kidney stone surgery.
How Will Kidney Stones Be Treated?
Kidney stone surgery is a procedure that can remove 90% of stones smaller than 4 mm. It is said that half of the stones between 4-7 mm and stones larger than 8 mm rarely pass on their own.
If the kidney stone has started to move in the urinary tract and there is no need to break the kidney stone. If the stones are small, doctors recommend that patients drink plenty of water and move. The aim is to reduce the problems that may occur during the passage of the stone with painkillers. However, in stones larger than 5 mm, intervention and a doctor’s consultation is necessary.
The urologist decides on the necessary kidney stone surgery based on the location and size of the stone, the patient’s health status and age. It is said that similar treatment methods are used in children and adults.
