Know about the Laser Surgery Treatment for Kidney Stone

The kidneys are one of the most important organs in the human body, which perform the most important function of detoxifying and filtering impurities from the blood, and throwing out the waste products through the urine.  However, the functioning may be hampered and become painful with kidney stones.

How are Kidney Stones formed?

Kidney stones are formed when the kidneys cannot process toxins efficiently, resulting in a buildup of unprocessed minerals and blockage of urine flow. These are solid chunks of mineral salt deposits that normally pass through the kidney and are emptied through the urine.

The urine contains a natural material, which dissolves the minerals, and prevents them from becoming solids – also called as crystals. The waste products in the blood can sometimes form crystals that collect inside the kidneys. With the passage of time, these crystals may harden and form stone-like lumps called Kidney stones. At times, the formation takes place due to dehydration and leads to crystallization when these salts cannot get dissolved.

It should be borne in mind if left untreated they can lead to renal failure, and you should, therefore, avail the best treatment for kidney stones.

Symptoms of Kidney Stones

Kidney stones do not have any definite cause, but there are many factors that may amplify your risk considerably. Most of the time kidney stones can go undetected for a long time, but when the stones begin to move to the ureter and block the flow of urine they cause severe pain.

Some of the kidney stone symptoms are:

• Pain in the abdomen or in the back
• Scattering pain in the groin area and testicles
• Urinary blood
• Sensation of Nausea or vomiting
• Sensation of burning during urination
• Urinary tract infection (UTI)
• Vitamin D overdosage
• Mineral imbalance
• Ailment of the kidneys
• Dehydration
• Gout
• Malnutrition

Treatment

Kidney stone treatment depends on their size. While smaller stones pass out through the urine easily, bigger ones cannot. Your doctor may prescribe medicines that will help in breaking down such stones, which will ultimately pass out along with the urine.

These stones can be enormously painful and make your life miserable. Getting them operated with the conventional methods may take time to cure as the recovery is slow. Fortunately, you can now treat these kidney stones by using the modern methods of kidney stone laser treatment, such as Ureteroscopy and laser lithotripsy.

• Laser Lithotripsy

Laser lithotripsy uses the short and intense infrared light pulses. These pulses are powerful enough to break the Kidney stones into tiny fragments, which are later excreted through the urine. This is an painless surgery and the patient undergoes quick recovery as compared to the conventional and traditional forms of surgery, which are not only bothersome, but take a long time for recovery.

• Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy (ESWL)

Another medical procedure is the Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy (ESWL), where shock waves are passed through the skin of the abdomen, and the kidney stone breaks up and passes out through the urine. In case of large kidney stones, a keyhole surgery may be performed – Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy or a Ureteroscopy.

• Shockwave Lithotripsy (SWL)

Shockwave lithotripsy, also known as the laser operation for kidney stones, is an excellent method of managing small or medium kidney stones. The process is performed on a patient under general anaesthesia and as an outpatient.

Additional Reading: 5 Strange Things that can Cause Kidney Stones

Shockwave lithotripsy is a method whereby powerful sound waves are focused on the kidney stone, and they cause the stone to break without damaging the adjacent tissue. The tiny pieces of kidney stone pass out of the kidney along with the urine – with little or no pain. SWL is highly successful in the treatment of stones in the kidney and the ureter.

If you discover that you have a kidney stone, make sure that you have it removed at the earliest through any of the kidney stone laser treatment methods. You need not have any apprehensions about the procedure as it is safe and non-invasive, and you can return to work almost immediately.