A kidney stone is a solid substance that forms inside the kidney due to elevated levels of particular substances that are present in the urine. When they remain in the urine they usually cause no harm, although when this stone remains in the kidney or the kidney tract, it may become painful and dangerous. These stones are usually brown or yellow and can be all different sizes and shapes , from the size of a grain of rice, or as large as golf ball; being very smooth or rugged. There are several symptoms that may indicate that you have a kidney stone such as bloody urine, pain while urinating, a fever with chills, urine that smells or is cloudy, or sharp pain in lower abdomen or back. These symptoms may continue for an extended or …show more content…
Most likely, if a kidney stone is causing blockage in the urinary tract, the person will need treatment. The majority of the kidney stones are small so they are left untreated and the person must wait for them to pass and a pain medication will be prescribed. One way someone could assist the stone in passing is by drinking a lot of water to help move the stone through the urinary tract, and if unable to drink due to vomiting, then it would be suggested that the person go to the hospital in order to get fluids through an IV. Your urologist can remove the kidney stone and break the stone into smaller pieces if the stone is large and the urinary tract is blocked with treatments such as shock wave lithotripsy and an ureteroscopy. In shock wave lithotripsy, a shock wave machine is used to break the kidney stone and then the small pieces that break off allowing them to pass through the UT. In an ureteroscopy, an uteroscope is used, which is a long tubular tool including an eyepiece, is used to locate the stone and fed up through the urethra and into the bladder ending in the ureter. Once the stone is located, the urologist can then break the stone using laser energy. Another procedure used to remove a kidney stone is a percutaneous nephrolithotomy, in which a wire-thin tool is used, a nephroscope, to locate the stone and remove it, feeding it right into the kidney through an incision made in the
Symptoms for urethritis are mild including frequency of urination and pyuria (presence of white blob cells in the urine). Cystitis (bladder infection) symptoms are easier to distinguish and include back pain, concentrated appearance, urgency, hematuria (presence of red blood cells in the urine), a...
Many people never find out that they have had stones in their kidneys. Some stones are small enough to flow through the kidney without ever causing any pain. These are called "silent stones"(Ford-Martin & Odle, 2005) Kidney stones cause problems when they get in the way of the normal flow of urine. They can block the flow through the ureter that carries urine from the kidney to the bladder. “The kidney is not accustomed to experiencing any pressure. When pressure builds from backed-up urine, it causes hydronephrosis” (Ford-Martin & Odle, 2005). If the kidney is subjected to this pressure for a while, there may be damage to the fragile kidney structures. When the kidney stone is lodged further down the ureter, the backed-up urine may also cause the ureter to swell. Because the ureter is a musc...
Kidney stones emerge from the accumulation of material in the urine which tends to clog the kidney urine drainage system. Usually, this material flows out of the urinary system along with the urine. However, over extended periods of time, this material forms larger masses which may result in blockage of the urinary tract. This blockage may predispose to infection which is characterized by bleeding and relentless pain. It can eventually lead to kidney failure.
Conforming to Melmed, Polonsky, Larsen & Kronenberg (2011) the waste products of the blood can form crystals which can collect inside the kidneys and aggregate to form stones. Normally the stones are composed of phosphate, oxalate, uric acid, and magnesium ammonium phosphate, single or combined. The type of stone is determined by the pathogenic mechanisms. When the stones are find in the bladder, ureters, renal tubules and collecting system they tend to be symptomatic. When the urine is oversaturated with the stones constituents the stones are formed. During the passage through the renal tubules the crystals aggregate into stones. In order to allow more time for growth the crystals anchor themselves to the renal tubular epithelium in the renal papillae and Randall’s plaques. The concentration of excreted ions is influenced by the diet. The intake of fluids can reduce the stone formation and growth. A reduction in the sodium int...
A kidney stone or crystal forms when the urine is supersaturated in regard to a stone forming material, meaning the urine contains a higher concentration of stone material than it can dissolve. There are several factors that can contribute to supersaturation, such as urine volume, pH, and the amount of solute excretion (Worcester and Coe 2009). There are numerous types of stones that can form depending on what material in the urine is in excess. The most common types of stones are calcium kidney stones with calcium oxalate (CaOx) causing 80% of all calcium stones and calcium phosphate (CaP) causing 15% of calcium stones (Sakhaee et al. 2012). Calcium oxalate stones are usually found in patients as white deposits on their papillae, or Randall’s plaques. The stone begins as a deposit of calciu...
Urolithiasis is the process of forming stones in the kidney, bladder, and/or urinary tract.1 1,200 to 1,400 per 100,000 people will develop a urinary stone each year. Urinary stones are formed when there is a decrease in urine volume or an excess of stone forming substances are present. The use of diagnostic imaging plays a vital role in the diagnostic and treatment processes of a stone in the urinary track. This paper will discuss the signs, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of Urolithiasis.
Pathophysiology There are three different stages of acute renal failure; prerenal, intrarenal, and post renal. Prerenal failure is a result from an illness or injury that causes obstruction of blood flow to the kidneys, called hypoperfusion. Hypotension, hypervolemia and inadequate cardiac output are all examples that could cause prerenal failure. According to Lippincott Williams and Wilkins (2009), “prerenal azotemia, excess nitrogenous waste products in the blood, account for 40% to 80% of all cases of acute renal failure” (p. 307). Intrarenal is when there is direct damage to the kidney tissue by either inflammations, drugs, infections or a reduction in the blood supply to the kidney. Post renal is when there is an obstruction of the urine flow. Causes of obstruction could be enlarged prostate gland, kidney stones, bladder tumor or injury. There are four phases of acute renal failure; onset, oliguria, diuresis and recovery. The onset phase can last hours or up to days. The BUN and creatinine levels may start to increas...
Although, all indications point to an infection if there the WBC count is extremely high and could result in urinary sepsis that would have to be treated with antibiotics (Mayo Clinic, 2017). However, blood calcium levels may be elevated above 300mg/day if the parathyroid is analyzed for hyperactivity ruling it out. Urinary calculi are made up of calcium making them more detectable on a KUB depending on their size if it is less then 2 mm, but if the stone is uric acid it would make it undetectable in the KUB since it is radiolucent (Endocrine Diseases, 2017). It appears that an accurate evaluation determining urinary calculi is by means of a CT scan. It is able to be conducting quickly using the spiral or helical cuts when taking images of the entire urinary tract. It helps identify other possibilities of pain near the kidneys if there are no stones found. As for a standard x-ray of the kidneys, bladder, and ureters it could help to identify stones since they are visible on x-rays (NHS,
The kidneys are bean shaped organs. They are a brownish-purplish sort of color. The outside of the kidneys are very tough, but smooth. This is described as a fibrous tunic. The outer part has millions of nephrons which are the basic unit of the kidney. The kidney is divided into two layers. The outer cortex and the medulla. When the outer cortex is stripped off you then get the medulla. The inside you have a thick mesh of muscular fibers. This is also smooth, and very even. It is very red in color, unlike the outside which is of brownish-purplish coloring. It is more red in color because it has tiny blood vessels. The kidneys are located in the posterior part of the abdomen, on both sides of the vertebral column. An easier way to say that would be right below the ribs towards the middle of your back. The right kidney is usually lower in location than the left kidney because of where the liver is. Each kidney is about 11cm long, 6cm wide, and 2.5 cm thick. The kidneys remove urea from the blood through a blood filtering unit called a nephron. There are more than 2 million nephrons in each kidney. The nephron is part of the homeostatic mechanism of your body. That mechanism maintains your water-salt balance, and it also regulates the amount of urea in your body. The blood enters the kidney through the bowmans capsule under pressure. This just surrounds the tuft of capillaries which is the glomerulus. The liquid just flows through the glomerulus under pressure. The pressure pushes the liquid out and keeps in the larger cells. This is filtration, because the glomerulus is taking the nutrients in and getting rid of the waste. After the filtering ...
One of the most common infections that occur in the urinary system is UTIs or Urinary Tract Infection. A UTI is when bacteria gets into the urinary system, either externally or from the digestive tract, and causes pain and irritation in the urinary tract (Friedl, n.d.). UTIs are typically treated with antibiotics. A common disease of the urinary system is incontinence, which is when you lose some or all of your bladder control (Friedl, n.d.). This can also cause retention problems, which is when you have trouble releasing urine from the bladder (Friedl, n.d.). Incontinence can be treated with medication and exercise that can help to retrain the muscle around the bladder and urethra area (Friedl, n.d.). Interstitial cystitis (IC), also known as painful bladder syndrome (BPS), is a type of chronic bladder condition that is primarily found in women (Zimmermann, 2016). IC can cause bladder pressure and pain, bladder scarring, and can cause less elasticity in the bladder (Zimmermann, 2016). Another form of inflammation in the urinary system is Prostatitis, the swelling of the prostate gland. Prostatitis is significant in that it only occurs in men and is often caused by advanced age (Zimmermann, 2016). It is generally cured by antibiotics. Kidney stones are an extremely painful condition that occurs in the urinary system when chemicals in the urine become
Kidney stones are small, hard objects that form inside the kidneys from minerals in the urine. Urine has waste in the water when you urinate. When there is too much waste and not enough water to dilute it, crystals will form. The crystals attract other ones and join together to form a stone that will get larger unless it is passed out of body. Your body could also be lacking the substances that keep these crystals from forming.
The components of the urinary tract from the renal pelvis is the urethra, ureter, urinary bladder and renal pelvis. The urinary bladder is the muscular sac in the pelvic cavity that serves as a storage for urine. The urethra is the tube muscle and membrane extending from the bladder to the urinary meatus which is the external opening of the urinary system. The male urethra is approximately 20 cm and the females' urethra is approximately 3cm long. The ureter is two narrow and muscular tubes that carry the newly formed urine from the renal pelvis in each kidney to the urinary bladder. The renal pelvis connects the kidneys to the ureter at the concave of the hilum. Daniel was diagnosed with urolithiasis, the presence of kidney stones in the urinary
If the kidney stone is larger than 1/4 inch in diameter it will most likely
From the kidneys, urine travels down two thin tubes called ureters to the bladder. The ureters are about 8 to 10 inches (200 to 250 mm) long. Muscles in the ureter walls constantly tighten and relax to force urine downward away from the kidneys. If urine is allowed to stand still, or back up, a kidney infection can develop. Small amounts of urine are emptied into the bladder from the ureters about every 10 to 15 seconds.
Now bladder stones are hard concretions that are usually found in the urinary bladder, they have a definite shape and are a consistency of a chalky stone, as talked about in an article by Susan brown. “Most include some sort of calcium carbonate that can be found in the kidney collecting ducts or the ureters as well.” (Brown) Some cases, the stones will pass causing no harm, and in other they may get stuck in the urethra, which can block urine flow. Bladder sludge is a thickening of urine with the appearance of calcium salts in the urine that do not form into stones. Sludge can involve many different types of calcium salts, in which it does not flow as normal as liquid urine should.