When a person after an ultrasound examination is told that a cyst has been found on his kidney, he will be perceived in the very first moments by a puzzled concern that quickly develops into a painful suspiciousness. However, in recent years, people, especially older ones, often have a kidney cyst. In this case, the patient could not even carry out treatment, since he had not previously suspected his illness. The disease does not affect the well-being of a person and does not pose a danger to life. The idea of a kidney cyst as an unexpected plague on humanity developed as a result of the widespread introduction of ultrasound in hospitals and clinics.
Most often, a kidney cyst is a pathological formation in the form of a spherical cavity with dense walls filled with liquid contents. Simply put, this is a bag of connective tissue with a clear yellowish liquid. The kidney cyst most often acts as a congenital disease, can also form due to prolonged inflammation and has the ability to gradually increase (can reach 10 cm in diameter).
For many years, the disease may not even manifest itself. The latent course of the development of kidney cysts is observed in almost a quarter of patients. However, they begin to think about how to cure a cyst on the kidney only when they detect the first symptoms, which appear when the cyst is enlarged (usually more than 4 cm) or suppuration:
- pain felt in the hypochondrium or lower back on the side where the affected kidney is located;
- renal colic ;
- high blood pressure (arterial hypertension).
Unlike cancer, a kidney cyst is a benign neoplasm. That is why, if a doctor discovers that a patient has a kidney cyst, he does not always prescribe treatment. In 70% of cases, it can simply be observed without resorting to surgical active actions. If the size of the cyst is not large (diameter not more than 5-6 cm), and it gradually does not increase over time, or increases slightly, but does not contribute to impaired blood circulation of the kidney and outflow of urine, in this case usually no treatment is required. Ultrasound examination should be done only once a year.
In general, it must be said that for any person who has a kidney cyst, a treatment should be selected strictly individually, if, of course, the presence of a cyst does not make itself felt, i.e. does not manifest itself, and there is no indication for its surgical removal. In the case of the presence of protein or red blood cells in the urine, with impaired outflow of urine and severe pain, the question of how to treat a cyst on the kidney becomes more serious.
The most common and common method for treating a single kidney cyst (no larger than 5 cm in size) is percutaneous puncture performed under the control of an ultrasound using a thin needle, cyst drainage, i.e. evacuation of the contents and the introduction of sclerosing agents (adhesives) into its cavity, as a result, the cyst walls stick together. Cysts no longer form in the kidney tissue at this site.
However, with this method of treatment, a high probability of a relapse of the disease. In addition, from a technical point of view, not all cysts can be punctured (depending on its location in the kidney).
Other methods are used if it is revealed that a kidney cyst has reached a very large size. Treatment in this case is carried out by means of a percutaneous operation using a nephroscope under the control of an X-ray or ultrasound - the entire contents of the cyst and its wall are removed. An open operation is performed in rare cases: when a cyst ruptures or suppurates, its degeneration into a tumor, or when a kidney dies, as well as when the cyst is deep in the kidney. Determining the indications for an open surgery (especially if the cyst is multi-chamber or there are septa), it is necessary to conduct not only an ultrasound scan, but also a CT scan of organs located in the retroperitoneal space, with a statement to exclude cancer.