How are ureteral stones treated?

  Xiao Zhang usually strong and healthy, working in a company, often stay up late and work overtime. One night not long ago, he had a sudden onset of lumbar pain, the pain like a knife cut, really called sitting is not, standing is not, lying is not, also involved in the lower abdomen, inner thighs also feel dull pain, urine also seems to block the discharge, only a few drops of soy sauce-colored urine. When his colleagues saw that he was pale, sweating and moaning, they immediately sent him to our hospital. The examination revealed that he had stones in his ureter and fluid in his kidneys. With the arrival of summer, patients like Xiao Zhang are encountered every day in our hospital.  The high temperature in summer makes people sweat especially easily, which makes uric acid excretion unfavorable under the condition of insufficient hydration, and more easily leads to the concentration of urine, resulting in the formation of crystals in the urine. Crystals and colloid deposition together, can gradually expand and gather into a stone. In addition, many patients have excessive craving for cold, excessive consumption of cold food, drinks and other bad habits, not only the risk of urinary tract stones increased, but also very easy to trigger an acute attack of stones.  Ureteral stones are the most common clinical disease of the urinary system, with a high incidence, accounting for 33% to 54% of urinary stones. They are mostly seen in young and middle-aged people, and are higher in men than in women. Ureteral stones can be discharged by themselves, and the rate of stone discharge is related to their transverse diameter, most of them can be discharged if their transverse diameter is ≤5mm, especially those located in the lower end of ureter. The rate of stone expulsion decreases to 15% for those with a transverse diameter of >6 mm, and only a few patients with a transverse diameter of >8 mm are able to expel stones on their own. Stones in the upper part of the ureter are usually larger, while stones in the lower part are usually smaller, so the rate of stone expulsion in the upper part of the ureter is significantly lower than that of stones in the lower part. Most stones are expelled in less than 3 weeks. During this period, the patients are given analgesic, antispasmodic and lithotriptic drugs, supplemented with drugs to relax ureteral smooth muscle, reduce the frequency of ureteral contraction, reduce the degree of renal colic and promote natural stone expulsion, which results in high stone expulsion rate.  Stones located in the ureter can stimulate mucosal congestion and edema, and longer stay in one place can cause inflammatory polyp formation, fibrous tissue hyperplasia, and granulation encapsulation, which can obstruct stone movement and discharge, and also make ESWL and ureteroscopic stone extraction and fragmentation more difficult, therefore, in today’s highly developed minimally invasive technology, it is not advisable to wait and see for a long time, if the stone is not discharged within 3~4 weeks, interventional treatment should be performed, especially if the transverse diameter is > 5mm. 5 mm in diameter. Our hospital adopts the latest ureteroscopic minimally invasive technology and laser lithotripsy, which can treat ureteral stones in one step, and can basically remove larger stones in one go, greatly avoiding the residual lithotripsy and stone street formation caused by extracorporeal microwave lithotripsy. The procedure is less invasive, with quick recovery and short hospital stay.  This shows that in order to reduce the occurrence or development of urinary stones in the summer, it is necessary to adjust timely life care measures. It is hot and sweaty people should drink more water, especially patients suffering from urinary tract stones should pay attention to the fact that drinking more water can keep the urinary tract open and reduce the chances of stones gathering, the water consumed to cool boiled water is better. Once the symptoms of severe lumbar colic occur, you should go to the hospital as soon as possible, and promptly use drugs or minimally invasive surgery to treat both, so as to discharge the stones as soon as possible and restore health.