Nephrolithiasis (kidney stones)

The disorder I chose is Nephrolithiasis (kidney stones). “Kidney stones, or calculi, form in the kidneys as a result of precipitation of urinary constituents and may develop in one or both of the kidneys” (Cunningham, Noble, Al-Modhefer, & Walsh, 2016, p.1112). I personally know a good many people who have had kidney stones in the past or even suffer from chronic kidney stones. I know a patient who suffered with chronic kidney stones for several years in a row and it seemed like nothing fixed her problem. The doctors said she was keeping them due to her drinking sweet tea. She quit drinking tea and still had them. Here recently she has randomly quit getting them as much even though she has not changed her diet except still not drinking sweet tea. She has had lithotripsy 4 times in the years that she had chronic kidney stones. “The first line treatment choice for upper urinary tract calculi is currently shock wave lithotripsy (SWL)” (Yamashita et al., 2018, p.1).
Kidney stones cause extreme amounts of pain. The patient I know, when she gets kidney stones, also has nausea and vomiting due to the pain caused by kidney stones. Treatment of kidney stones include treating the pain, helping the stone to pass or removing them, and preventing new stones from forming. Symptoms of kidney stones include flank pain and blood in the urine.
“The prevalence of stones in the United States is approximately 7% in women and 10% in men” (Huether &McCance, 2017, p.748). Before doing my research on kidney stones, I thought they were more prevalent in women, but men have a 3% higher chance of getting them than women. “The risk of urinary calculi formation is influenced by a number of factors, including age, sex, race, geographic location, seasonal factors, fluid intake, diet, and occupation. Most persons develop their first stone before age 50 years” (Huether &McCance, 2017, p.748).
There are many factors that influence the formations of kidney stones. People who are more active and drink plenty of water are at a decreased risk of forming kidney stones. There are also multiple types of kidney stones like calcium stones, struvite stones, and uric acid stones. Everything that happens in our bodies can be brought back to cellular function.
Huether & McCanee, 2017, p.749, stated:
Human urine contains many ions capable of precipitating from solution and forming a variety of salts. The salts from crystals that are retained grow into stones. Crystallization is the process by which crystals grow from a small nidus of nucleus to larger stones in the presence of supersaturated urine.
If doctors can pinpoint what type of kidney stone a patient is forming, they can most likely fix the problem.
References
Cunningham, P., Noble, H., Al-Modhefer, A.-K., & Walsh, I. (2016). Kidney stones:
pathophysiology, diagnosis and management. British Journal of Nursing, 25(20), 1112–1116. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.12968/bjon.2016.25.20.1112
Huether, S. E., & McCance, K. L. (2017). Understanding pathophysiology (6th ed.). St. Louis,
MO: Mosby.
Yamashita, S., Kohjimoto, Y., Iwahashi, Y., Iguchi, T., Nishizawa, S., Kikkawa, K., & Hara, I.
(2018). Noncontrast Computed Tomography Parameters for Predicting Shock Wave Lithotripsy Outcome in Upper Urinary Tract Stone Cases. Biomed Research International, 2018, 9253952. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1155/2018/9253952

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