The crystallization of waste products in urine can produce kidney stones. These stones can vary in composition and their elimination may occur naturally or require surgical treatment.
The human body gets rid of many of the substances it doesn't need by dissolving them in water and expelling them from the body as urine. If the urine is very concentrated, these substances can precipitate as... crystals first and from urinary stones later. The size of these stones can vary from 1 millimeter to several centimeters in diameter.
In some cases, a single stone is formed, and in others, more than one. It most often affects people over thirty years old and, in general, it appears more frequently in men than in women.
When these stones break off from the kidney and travel down the ureter to the bladder, they can cause a renal colicIt is a painful condition characterized by the sudden onset of lower back pain on one side that radiates to the groin on the same side and is accompanied by sweating and nausea or vomiting. Many people consider it a pain "worse than childbirth."
If these stones do not pass spontaneously (they have to go down into the bladder and from there out through the urethra), they need to be treated with extracorporeal lithotripsy with shock waves, Holmium laser ureteroscopy or by Holmium laser percutaneous renal surgery.
