Kidney stone disease: A brief description

Kidney is a pair of organs located behind the abdominal cavity which its main function is to filter and remove the waste of metabolism in the form of urine. The kidneys also responsible to regulate blood pressure, fluid balance and the production of red blood cells in human body. The amount of urine produced by kidney is dependent on the person's condition. The kidneys will produce more and colorless urine in somewhat healthy person with adequate fluid intake. However, less and concentrated urine will be found in dehydrated person.

Several diseases can arise if a person pay less attention to the amount of fluid intake. One of them is kidney stone disease. How the stone formed in the kidney is still inconclusive. However, numerous conditions allegedly might increase the risk of this disease, such as lack of fluid intake; lot of protein, calcium and oxalate-rich food intake; and lack of physical activity.

The symptoms caused by kidney and urinary tract stone disease are depend on the location of the stones. Stone located in the kidney might shows as a flank pain, stone in the ureter may emerged as a colicky pain, while stone in the bladder can cause pain as well as difficult in urinating. This disease must be treated immediately if it causing symptoms as mentioned above. The management of this disease is based on the size and location of the stone. The treatment including medications, shock wave lithotripsy, minimal-invasive surgery and open surgery.

As a prevention to this disease, we are expected to move into healthy lifestyles, including reducing the consumption of stone production-related food, plenty of water intake (8 to 10 glasses per day). Regular exercise and physical activity are also highly recommended to avoid this disease. The last but not the least, if you had diagnosed with kidney stone disease, it is advisable to routinely visit your urologist even though there are no symptoms.