Prevention and treatment countermeasures for urinary tract stones

Urinary stones are one of the common and frequent diseases of the urinary system, closely related to environmental factors, systemic lesions and urological diseases. Stones are usually formed in the kidney and bladder and can appear in various parts of the kidney, ureter, bladder and urethra. Larger kidney stones can be asymptomatic for a long time, while smaller stones move in the kidney and ureter, causing violent peristalsis of the ureter and producing pain, called renal colic. The patient may roll over in bed, moaning and groaning, pressing the painful area with both hands, often with nausea and vomiting. Most episodes of colic are intermittent and are accompanied by visual hematuria or microscopic hematuria, often predominantly posterior. Bladder stones may present with interruption of urination, urethral stones present with thinning of the urine stream and difficulty in urination, and some patients may have stones expelled with the urine. The diagnosis of urinary tract stones is not difficult and can be confirmed by medical history, physical examination, ultrasound, X-ray and laboratory tests. 95% of stones can be shown on abdominal plain films. Preventive measures and treatment plans should be developed.  The prevention of urinary tract stones should be based on different situations. In summer, working in a hot environment, stone prone areas and stone prone individuals should be encouraged to drink a lot of water to maintain a daily urine volume of 2 to 3 liters, because the night urine volume is low, you can also take the method of drinking water before going to bed and after getting up at night to urinate, to keep the night urine volume increased, which is beneficial to prevent the occurrence of stones and delay the increase of existing stones, such as combining diuretic If combined with diuretic drugs, it can promote the discharge of small stones. The pus mass of urinary tract infection can also be the core of stone formation. Drinking more water and applying antibiotics can promote urinary drainage and control the infection to prevent the occurrence of infectious stones. Disorders of systemic calcium and phosphorus metabolism can lead to an increase in calcium concentration in the urine, resulting in crystal precipitation and stone formation, such as in patients with hyperparathyroidism, parathyroid adenomas should be removed first. In patients with gout, abnormal purine metabolism and increased uric acid can cause uric acid stones, so prevention should start with the treatment of gout. The use of some drugs can also occur urinary tract stones, such as sulfonamide drugs through the kidney discharge, in the acidic urine drug crystals are very easy to precipitate, the formation of stones, so prevention should drink more water and take alkalizing urine drugs, may induce kidney stones. Congenital malformations of the urinary tract, such as congenital pelvic ureteral stenosis, can cause obstruction of the urinary tract, poor urine flow, secondary infection, leading to the occurrence of stones, and therefore require surgical correction. Older men with prostate enlargement have poor urination and are prone to bladder stones, so prostate enlargement should be treated early. Some patients with ileal short-circuit surgery, ileal resection surgery or tuck-in enteritis, due to bile reabsorption and utilization disorders, excessive calcium oxalate is absorbed from the intestine and excreted through the urine, forming calcium oxalate stones, which can be prevented by taking LBP. The treatment of urinary tract stones should also be based on different conditions to develop the appropriate treatment plan, for 0.5cm size kidney and ureteral stones can be encouraged to increase water intake, For 0.5cm kidney and ureteral stones, we can encourage them to drink more water and take Chinese herbal lithotripsy tablets for conservative treatment to promote their discharge. Most of the kidney and ureteral stones can be treated by minimally invasive techniques. 1. Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL): ESWL is used to locate the stones outside the body by X-ray or ultrasound, and then use high-energy shock wave to focus on the stones to crush them, which has the advantages of less trauma, fewer complications and no anesthesia. ESWL can be combined with percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) and ureteroscopic lithotripsy for comprehensive treatment of stones. Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy can be performed in patients with kidney stones less than 2 cm and ureteral stones about 1 cm in size, with good ipsilateral renal function and a patent ureter beneath the stone. 2. Ureteroscopic lithotripsy (UL): It is the main minimally invasive method for ureteral stone treatment, usually inserted through the urethra and bladder into the ureteroscope, and a lithotripsy basket is used for stone extraction under direct vision in the ureter. For larger stones, laser, pneumatic ballistics and ultrasound can be used to fragment the stones. Another advantage of ureteroscopy is that it can observe lesions other than stones, such as ureteral tumors, polyps, inflammation, etc. 3, percutaneous nephrolithotomy or lithotripsy (PCNL): through the lumbar dorsal fine needle puncture directly to the renal calyces or renal pelvis, expand and establish the channel from the skin to the kidney, insert and place the nephrolithoscope, extract or lithotripsy under direct vision, stone crushing can be mechanical, ultrasound, fluid electric, laser or pneumatic ballistic methods, for > 2.5 cm pelvic kidney. For pelvic calyx stones > 2.5 cm. For complex kidney stones, PCNL or ESWL alone may be difficult and can be used in combination to complement each other. Complex kidney stones can also be treated by PCNL several times through the original percutaneous nephrological channel, and upper ureteral stones can also be treated by PCNL, especially for patients with combined pelvic calyx stones. Currently, percutaneous nephrolithoscopy with extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy and other comprehensive treatment, stone removal rate can reach more than 95%.4. Laparoscopic surgery: It is a minimally invasive surgery widely carried out in the field of urology, which can be applied to ureteral incision and stone extraction, compared with traditional open surgery, laparoscopic surgery has the advantages of less trauma, less bleeding, less postoperative pain, faster recovery and more accurate surgical anatomy. At present, traditional open surgery is rarely used for stone treatment.  Bladder stones can be treated by holmium laser lithotripsy under urethrocystoscopy. In elderly men, most bladder stones are due to poor urination caused by prostate enlargement, so it is necessary to remove the obstruction caused by the enlarged prostate. Posterior urethral stones can be treated by pushing a urethral dilator into the bladder for lithotripsy, or by laser lithotripsy via urethroscopy.  Finally, we should be alert to the fact that long-term stimulation of local tissues by urinary stones can induce cancer, so urinary stones need to be actively prevented and treated.