The hotel manager Wang knew he had double kidney stones for six or seven years, that was discovered during an occasional physical examination, and no back pain, hematuria and other symptoms, when the two kidney stones are only as big as a soybean, according to the doctor’s orders to eat some stone removal drugs, and then no longer care about it. So many years has not been any discomfort, thought it was fine, coupled with busy work, has not been to the hospital to review. However, in the past three months, Mr. Wang found that he had lost his appetite, initially thought he had a bad stomach, took some stomach medicine, but the symptoms did not reduce but gradually aggravated, shortness of breath, breathing difficulties after activities, limb weakness, so I felt the problem was serious, came to the People’s Hospital for outpatient treatment, the doctor suspected that he had “uremia”, after B ultrasound, blood tests and other tests, confirmed that it is “uremia”, and the cause of the disease is “latent for a long time” double kidney stones! However, at this time, the double kidney stones are not the size of a soybean, but covered the kidneys in the form of ginger lumps of cast stones, kidney parenchyma atrophy. Manager Wang was shocked, immediately for hospitalization procedures, after further examination, the doctor confirmed the diagnosis of obstructive nephropathy, chronic renal insufficiency uremic phase, even if the surgery to remove the kidney stones can not restore kidney function, currently only rely on regular hemodialysis to replace the kidney function, to get off long-term hemodialysis can only count on kidney transplantation. The matter has come to this, Wang manager regret, it is their own paralysis lost a favorable treatment time, and finally lost two kidneys, and now the quality of life is significantly reduced, not to mention the burden of heavy medical costs to maintain life. Many people have had or are experiencing urinary tract stones, some have had unbearable pain and unbearable to look back on, some have never suffered and complacent. But is it really possible to rest easy when stones are not painful? In fact, many people, including some non-urosurgical professionals, believe that gallstones and urinary tract stones can be ignored if they are not painful and do not affect life expectancy. This is actually a misconception. It is true that some asymptomatic gallbladder stones can be treated without special treatment, but they also need to be observed and followed up. In contrast, urinary tract stones of any size and in any location need to be treated actively, otherwise they will gradually increase in size with time and gradually develop hematuria, pain, infection and obstruction. The majority of patients will seek medical attention and get timely treatment when the stones show symptoms such as pain and hematuria, but a considerable number of people, like the unfortunate Mr. Wang, are paralyzed and neglect the existence of stones or simply do not know the existence of stones, thus delaying treatment and causing chronic damage to kidney function or even loss of kidney function. Based on more than 20 years of clinical experience in urology, we believe that asymptomatic stones are basically upper urinary tract stones, including kidney stones and ureteral stones. Kidney stones may exist for a long time without symptoms, especially the larger deerstalker stones. According to statistics, about 50% to 60% of patients with kidney stones have no obvious history of pain. Some of the ureteral stones may be large and embedded without pain and other symptoms, mostly in the upper ureteral stones with large hydronephrosis. Pain and hematuria caused by stones are due to local mechanical damage to the mucosa of the kidney and ureter, mucosal ulceration and damage to the tiny blood vessels, local inflammatory lesions, and obstruction of the urinary tract. When small stones pass through the ureter, the spasm of the ureter caused by stone stimulation can lead to severe “renal colic”, while large stones are less painful because they are inactive, which is called “no pain without movement”. Interestingly, most of the ureteral stones that have severe “renal colic” can be excreted through conservative treatment and do not have much impact on the body. When the stone is located in the renal calyces, or the stone is large and immobile, and there is no co-infection, there are often no obvious symptoms, and even a large amount of hydronephrosis or pus in the kidney can be complicated without obvious discomfort, or there is only a slight lumbar pain and think it is due to exertion and negligence. However, the absence of symptoms of stones is by no means the same as no impact on health! The effects of urinary tract stones are: a. mechanical damage to the urinary tract: can cause local mucosal lesions, which can lead to pain, hematuria; b. cause urinary tract obstruction: cause varying degrees of hydronephrosis, the lighter can recover after treatment, the heavier leads to serious damage to kidney function, can not recover, or even complete loss of kidney function. Normal people have two kidneys, the loss of one of the kidney function does not affect normal life, which is the reason why some patients delay treatment. Third, urinary tract infection: “running water does not rot”, stones make urine stagnation is easy to complicate the infection, and the infection can accelerate the growth of stones and damage to the kidney parenchyma. Fourth, stones can be combined with polyps or malignant tumors. Long-term stimulation of stones can cause proliferative changes in the urinary epithelium and eventually cause squamous epithelial carcinoma! Asymptomatic urinary tract stones are more frightening because they are not detected and can exist for a long time, affecting health for a long time and “hurting people invisibly”. Asymptomatic small stones gradually increase in size over the years, asymptomatic large stones are bound to cause the above-mentioned harm. What can be done? The first step is to identify the problem in order to solve it. Whether or not there are symptoms, we are in an area with a high incidence of stones, and it is worthwhile to have an ultrasound examination at least once a year. Once a stone is found, it should be seen by a urologist. Small stones, less than 0.6 cm, can be treated conservatively by drinking plenty of water and taking lithotripsy medication. For larger stones, different treatment options can be chosen depending on the location and size of the stone. The Department of Urology of the People’s Hospital is now skilled in all minimally invasive stone extraction techniques such as extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy, cystoscopy lithotripsy for stone extraction, ureteroscopy lithotripsy for stone extraction, minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotripsy for stone extraction, laparoscopic ureterotomy for stone extraction, etc. Together with rich experience in open surgery, it can fully meet the clinical needs of stone patients in the region.