People who have had attacks of kidney stone disease say that the excruciating pain they experienced was comparable to giving birth. Over 300,000 patients with kidney stones are hospitalized in the United States alone each year.
According to some, this is a problem of our time associated with an improper lifestyle and malnutrition. However, even in ancient times, people were tormented by kidney stones, the symptoms of this ancient disease have been described for a long time, and even in Egyptian mummies archaeologists find kidney stones.
Why does the formation of stones occur?
This is due to the fact that mineral substances, which should be excreted from the body along with urine in dissolved form, accumulate in the kidneys and grow.
These formations are different in form and in their chemical composition. In some cases, even the so-called coral kidney stones are formed. Such stones are a kind of cast of the pyelocaliceal cavity of the kidney and are difficult to treat. Most stones are composed of calcium oxalate, and only 5% are calcium phosphate.
What is the reason for the spread of this disease?
Throughout life, up to 5% of women and 10% of men can get kidney stones, symptoms of a recurrent disease may subsequently appear in one out of five people suffering from this ailment.
Doctors cannot give an explanation for the fact that some people have kidney stones, symptoms, the treatment of which requires a lot of effort, while other people do not get sick. Here are the alleged causes of the disease:
• Violation of the metabolic process in the body.
• Infections.
• Chronic dehydration
• Inherited defects.
• Improper nutrition.
Up to 80% of all stones when urinating come out on their own. At the same time, the patient feels unbearable pain, despite the fact that the stones are relatively small and sometimes hardly distinguishable. To facilitate their exit, doctors advise drinking as much fluid as possible.
However, there are cases when a large stone (sometimes even like a golf ball) is not able to pass through the urinary ducts, or conduction in the urinary tract itself is impaired. In these cases, the patient needs emergency medical care.
Disease prevention
The most important tip is to drink plenty of water! Then the risk of “earning” kidney stones is reduced, the symptoms of the course of an existing disease will be significantly alleviated, and this ailment will not bring so much suffering. Water should be consumed abundantly, because more than 2 liters of urine should be excreted from the body per day.
How to eat? Cut back on meat, salt, and oxalate-rich foods that can cause kidney stones: chocolate, nuts, black pepper, green leafy vegetables like spinach.
According to recent studies, an increase in calcium in the daily diet prevents the formation of stones, does not contribute, as previously thought.
Treatment
If, despite all the precautions, kidney stones still form, the symptoms can and should be alleviated. This requires serious treatment. In the past, there was only one surgical method of treatment - an extensive operation, after which the patient could not return to normal life for a long time.
There are currently two common methods for removing stuck stones:
1. The method of minimal surgical intervention. With this method, the doctor makes an incision in the side, measuring only 1 cm, into which the probe is inserted. Through an ultrasonic generator, a vibration will be created with a frequency of up to 25 thousand vibrations per second to crush the stones. In this case, continuous depletion of fragments through the probe. So the kidney is cleaned of stones and debris until the special equipment detects that everything is clean.
2. ESWL method - the so-called extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy. This method does not involve any incisions on the body at all. The patient is placed in a stainless steel vessel half filled with warm water. It is neatly positioned so that the kidney is facing the center of the shock waves produced by the underwater spark discharge. Waves freely pass through a person’s soft tissue and reach a stone without losing their energy. They continue to bombard the stone until they crush it. In most patients, crushed stone comes out easily.
Today, with the development of technology, the surgical method is rarely used, and this is encouraging information for millions of patients.