Kidney stone symptoms do not always occur: kidney stones that are quiet in the kidneys generally do not cause any discomfort. They are often discovered only by chance during an ultrasound or X-ray examination. Find out from when kidney stones become a problem.
Kidney stone symptoms: from mild to severe
It can be painful when kidney stones from the kidneys enter the ureter and slowly migrate there. These stones, known as ureteral stones, can cause discomfort, depending on their size:
Kidney semolina and very small stones flow off with the urine – the affected person feels at most a small, stabbing pain while urinating. More problematic are larger kidney stones: Symptoms such as strong, colicky pain, which can increase to almost unbearable within 15 to 30 minutes and depending on the location of the stone can radiate into other parts of the body, accompany the acute stalactite. Physicians speak of a renal colic (ureteral colic). It is one of the most intensely felt types of pain in humans and is based on an irritation (irritation) and overstretching of the ureter by the outgoing kidney stone.
Symptoms that may indicate renal colic are:
- Sudden, violent, stinging, spasmodic, wave-like pains that, depending on the location of the kidney stone, can radiate into the back, lateral lower abdomen, groins, or into the genital region (labia, testicles)
- Nausea, nausea and vomiting
- Defecation and flatulence can not go away (reflex bowel obstruction)
- Frequent urination of small amounts of urine (pollakisuria) and unquenchable urinary frequency
- Often blood in the urine due to mucosal injury in the urinary tract through the outgoing pebbles; the blood is either visible to the naked eye (macrohematuria) or only under the microscope (microhematuria)
- Motor restlessness
- Sweat breakout, tendency to collapse
- Fever, chills and pain when urinating with additional urinary tract infection
As soon as the outgoing kidney stone reaches the urinary bladder, the renal colic spontaneously disappears. How fast that happens depends on the size of the stone. For smaller kidney stones, renal colic sometimes takes only minutes. Renal colic, which is caused by kidney stones about half an inch thick, usually ends after a few hours. In severe cases, when a kidney stone has lodged in the ureter, the departure may take several days.
Kidney stones: complications
If a kidney stone (ureteral stone) completely closes the ureter, the urine produced in the kidney can no longer run off. Doctors call this a urinary blockage. The urine accumulates in the kidney and with it the toxins filtered from the blood. These damage the kidney tissue over time.
In addition, it bacteria through the urinary tract easier to penetrate into the urinary tract and get stuck there – it comes to a urinary tract infection. The combination of urinary retention and infection favors the passage of bacteria from the urinary tract into the bloodstream. The result is a urosepsis, so a blood poisoning by bacteria who have come from the genitourinary tract (urinary and genital tract) in the bloodstream.
Chronic kidney stones: symptoms
Kidney stones larger scale difficult to reach the ureter. They can remain in the renal pelvis and grow into a spout, a kidney stone that fills the entire renal pelvis. The symptoms occurring are often less pronounced; Often a dull pressure sets in the kidney area. In addition, such Kidney stones symptoms of urinary retention and chronic inflammation of the renal pelvis with loss of kidney tissue (shrinking).