Renal colic: what it is, causes, symptoms, treatment and how to prevent it from recurring

Pain. Much pain. Unbearable pain. Pain worse than childbirth, according to women. This is how those who have suffered from it describe renal colic.

Urologists, however, go into a little more detail and define it medically as a obstruction of the urinary tract almost always caused by calculi or stones that cause a sharp pain on the side, waist or on the side of the tummy. The pain starts suddenly, and with increasing and intermittent intensity it spreads towards the groin or genitals.

If we finally attend to the explanation of the renal colic, we would be understanding “pain in the lower back of moderate or great intensity that begins abruptly and represents a great limitation for the patient”.

Pain is the “surname” of renal colic

Renal colic is always accompanied, in any description, by the word pain in its highest intensity. And the cause that causes it is that there is something that is obstructing the exit of urine from the kidney to the bladder.

Pain is the main symptom of renal colic QUIRONSALUD

Are the kidney stones or calculi the main causes of nephritic colic. Specific, 98% of cases are caused by themwhich little by little have been accumulating at some point in the urinary system.

In the rest of the cases, more exceptional, renal colic may be caused by other pathologies that cause obstruction of the urinary tract, such as tumors or congenital diseases.

Symptoms of renal colic

If we have ever suffered from it, we know very well that it is the unbearable pain that alerts us that the stones have reappeared. But it is not the only symptom.

Manuel Fernandez Arjonahead of the urology service at Hospital del Henares, lists the most common complaints of this pathology:

• Intense and sharp pain in the lower back: it appears on one side only and is not associated with movements or postures. Sometimes the pain can pass to the groin area.
• Blood in the urine: Kidney stones can cause small lesions in the urinary tract.
• stinging when urinating: this symptom is very typical when the stone is located near the bladder.
• constant urge to urinate.
• nausea and vomiting due to the strong pain caused by colic.
• Fever: The increase in body temperature should alert us because it could be due to an infection. In this case, the best thing to do is to go to an emergency service.

AND what to do when the first symptoms appear of the dreaded nephritic colic?

Well family medicine experts advise:

• Try to alleviate the symptoms by taking an analgesic or anti-inflammatory.

• Rest looking for the position that most relieves pain and apply local heat. We can even take a hot bath.

• Urinate into a container or strain the urine with gauze to try to pick up the stone. This way we will know if we have expelled it or not, and if so, we can take it for analysis.

But most likely, the pain will make us end up in the emergency room, and it will be there that the health workers will confirm the diagnosis through a series of tests: An x-ray, a blood test or an ultrasound will determine the presence of kidney stones in the urinary tract.

How is renal colic treated?

The first thing that the health personnel will do is attack the pain caused by the stones. so the analgesics they are the first therapy to relieve the patient.

But of course, once the pain is eliminated, the stones will still be there, so it is essential to try to eliminate them. This can be done in two ways:

• Placing a catheter through the urethra.

• making a nephrostomy. As explained by Dr. Fernández Arjona, this consists of placing a catheter through a puncture in the lower back, the affected kidney is punctured, reaching the urinary tract. In this way the urine produced by the kidney is discarded through this tube.

What if the stone is too big?

Sometimes stones can be produced in our body that, either because of their size or because of their location, make it impossible to expel them in the urine. In these cases they can be broken by sound waves with a procedure called “extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL)” which lasts just under an hour.

You may also need to use the surgeryalthough it is not very frequent.

Have you felt pain in a buttock at night? This is how spondyloarthritis begins and how it is freepik

How to prevent it from happening again?

Have you had any renal colic throughout your life? Well, unfortunately, it is very likely that it will happen to you again.

According to , about 3 out of 5 people who have had colic will have it again in less than 10 years.

So in this case it is best to put everything on our side so that such a painful episode does not repeat itself. And for this, the experts in family medicine propose some preventive measures as easy to put into practice as they are effective:

• The first and most important thing is Drink a lot of liquids. How much? About 2.5 liters a day (about 12 glasses) and if it can be water, the better.

• There are times when we can lose more fluids than normal. If we have a fever, if it is very hot, if we exercise… In these cases, hydration must be reinforced even more.

• Limit consumption of salt, meat, coffee and caffeinated beverages, as well as tea and cocoa.

• Do exercise on regular basis.

• Avoid constipation.

In addition, knowing the type of stones that we generate can give us more concrete clues about the foods that we should avoid. For example, if what we have are calculi that contain calcium:

• We must reduce the consumption of foods rich in oxalate, such as spinach, beets, legumes, cereals, fruits, nuts.

• And although we have heard it a thousand times, family medicine experts warn that we should NOT stop drinking milk. This could increase the risk of stones forming.

• Be especially careful with antacids, they contain extra calcium.

• It would be good to increase the consumption of foods rich in citrate such as…