Kidney stones treatment in children

Although the main patients with kidney stones are middle-aged and elderly people, young people and children are also likely to suffer from kidney stones. Kidney stones are less common in children, so they are very rare. When parents find that their children have kidney stones, they should not panic too much and miss the best time for treatment, which will lead to more serious consequences of the disease. In modern clinical medicine, what is the best treatment for kidney stones in children?

The clinical manifestations of kidney stones in children are atypical, mainly manifested as hematuria, nausea, and vomiting. Young children have vague descriptions of abdominal pain and cannot clearly describe the location of low back pain. A 5-year-old patient with kidney stones in this group complained of left upper abdominal pain every time an attack occurred. Therefore, kidney stones are rarely diagnosed for the first time in clinical practice, and most are easily misdiagnosed for a long time. For patients with low back pain and/or hematuria, B-ultrasound examination is the first choice, which can be combined with abdominal X-ray to improve the diagnosis rate. After the diagnosis is confirmed, drug penetration therapy is adopted, with the main purpose of promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, dilating blood vessels, improving the local blood supply to the ureteral smooth muscle, thereby enriching the blood flow to the kidneys, increasing the amount of urine generated, and facilitating the excretion of stones.

Dilation of the renal artery increases the effective blood perfusion of the damaged kidney, increases oxygen supply to the kidney, improves renal microcirculation, adjusts the overall function of the kidney, stabilizes the pH of urine, and allows Ca2+, lipids, oxalates, etc. to be fully dissolved in the urine without deposition, precipitation, or formation of stone nuclei, thereby eliminating the conditions for stone regeneration. If the stone is larger than 0.80cm×0.90cm, extracorporeal laser lithotripsy combined with drug treatment is performed. Extracorporeal laser lithotripsy is a better method for treating kidney stones, and the indications should be strictly followed.

The symptoms of stones are atypical in young children, and they rarely experience flank and abdominal colic like adults. Children with kidney stones have symptoms such as difficulty urinating, urination disorder, urinary retention, enuresis, bloody stools, repeated urgency and fever, while diffuse abdominal pain or nausea and vomiting are relatively common. Based on the chief complaint, they are often misdiagnosed as appendicitis.

In older children, there is typical colic in addition to the main symptom of abdominal pain. Some children may present with urinary tract infection. Kidney stones or ureteral stones often have hematuria and pyuria, as well as fever, urgency and turbid urine. When a child has symptoms such as urinary pain and difficulty urinating, parents should go to the hospital for treatment in time. First, a routine urine test, renal function test, and ureteral ultrasound should be done to determine the cause and location of kidney stones, and then take relevant treatment. Normally infants and young children who consume milk powder will not develop kidney stones. The kidney stones caused by "Sanlu milk powder" this time are still a problem of "melamine" contamination.

In treatment, the cause should be eliminated first, toxic chemicals in the body should be removed, and the source of kidney stone formation should be blocked in time. If the stones are relatively small and the location is not too important, the main method is to take some hydration and alkalization of urine to reduce the formation of stones. As long as it is discovered and diagnosed in time and treated actively, acute renal failure will generally not develop. However, once the stones are relatively large and affect urination and urination, older children can also undergo surgery or extracorporeal lithotripsy.

Parents should pay more attention to their children's daily reactions. If they find signs of kidney stones, they should let their children drink more water. Patients with serious conditions should be sent to the hospital in time for a comprehensive examination. They should follow the doctor's instructions and receive treatment so that patients can escape the clutches of kidney stones as soon as possible.