Kidney Stone Treatment
Kidney stones are said to be one of the most painful medical conditions known to man, but kidney stone treatment can be as simple as drinking water. Yes, you read that right. Water may be the best kidney stone treatment you can find.
Kidney stones are caused when excess minerals in the urine crystallize and turn into small masses inside the kidneys. Drinking lots of water helps keep the urine balanced and makes it difficult for kidney stones to develop.
When kidney stones do form, medical intervention is not always necessary. Most of the time, a kidney stone passes from the body without incident, except of course the pain. Because of this, the most common kidney stone treatment is time along with fluids and pain killers.
Doctors recommend drinking a glass of water every hour to help kidney stones pass. For the pain, many people use over-the-counter pain killers. If the pain is unbearable, a doctor can prescribe something stronger. And then it's just a waiting game. On average, kidney stones make their way out of the body within one to three weeks.
Some kidney stones are too big to pass out of the body on their own. In order to leave the kidneys, the stone must move through a tiny tube, called the ureter, to get into the bladder for removal. When a kidney stone is large - bigger than 10mm, for example - it doesn't fit comfortably in that little tube, hence the excruciating pain.
In situations where the kidney stones are too big to pass on their own, they are blocking the urinary tract or the pain is simply too severe to live with, there a few different kidney stone treatments that may be used:
Kidney Stone Treatment - Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy (ESWL)
ESWL is the most common kidney stone treatment. It uses a shock wave to break up the kidney stone into smaller pieces that can pass more easily from the body.
Kidney Stone Treatment - Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy
With this kidney stone treatment, the doctor makes an incision in the patient's back and inserts a surgical telescope through the cut into the kidney, where the stone is either broken up or removed. This treatment is generally used with large kidney stones that were not affected by ESWL.
Kidney Stone Treatment - Ureteroscopic Stone Removal
In this procedure, the doctor inserts the surgical telescope into the body through the urinary tract, where the stone is broken up or removed. This treatment sometimes requires the temporary placement of a small tube, or stent, in the ureter to allow the stones and urine to flow out unimpeded. This treatment is most frequently used when the kidney stone has become lodged in the ureter.
On very rare occasions, surgery is used to remove kidneys stones through the belly or the side. But most often, the best kidney stone treatment is water and time.