Summer is here and temperatures can reach 33 degrees Celsius. In some municipalities these can reach 36 degrees, according to the climate authorities. For specialists, the “heat wave” this season becomes a threat to health, due to a possible “hangover.” To the low intake of water, dehydration due to heat is added, (sweating) which leaves the body with a deficit.
“The heat these days is very intense and since there is not enough fluid consumption, the concentration of substances that crystallize forming kidney stones is favored,” said the doctor, urologist, from the Medical Center.
According to the specialist, people from Cali are not prone to drinking water or liquids during the day, and this, added to the intense heat, favors the formation of stones, which is why Cali is one of the cities with the highest incidence of this disease, in Colombia.
Stones are hard, stone-like masses that form primarily with saturation of salts in the urine and other substances such as calcium and uric acid and which can cause severe pain (renal colic), obstruction in the flow of urine, bleeding and urinary tract infections.
“Acute pain requires consultation and depending on the state we must consider the best alternative. We treat most of them with drugs and surgical management for the most serious ones,” said Dr. Sejnaui.
The size of the calculations can vary from 1 millimeter, imperceptible, up to three centimeters or more. The smaller ones do not cause any discomfort. The large ones cause intense pain in the lower back that radiates to the abdomen and pelvis, as reported by most of the patients admitted in the last few hours.
Other symptoms include nausea, chills, fever, and blood in the urine. Stones can also cause a urinary tract infection because, by blocking the urine stream (hydronephrosis), bacteria get trapped there causing infection.
According to specialists, stones that do not cause symptoms can be discovered causally in a routine analysis. Large, painful stones are detected by symptoms of renal colic or by x-ray.
Cali, due to the climate, is one of the cities with the highest incidence of the disease. About 200,000 people have stones and most don’t know it. For every three men with the disease there are two women who suffer from it.
According to the nephrologist Between 60% and 70% of cases present symptoms such as acute, intense and incapacitating colicky pain, accompanied by general malaise and sometimes bloody urine.
“In other cases it manifests with repetitive urinary infections without cause, or burning and difficulty urinating. In more serious cases and due to lack of treatment, kidney failure can occur, the loss of the kidney, and in some cases the patient must undergo dialysis (medical treatment that artificially eliminates toxic substances that the kidney cannot eliminate),” he says. Dr Mejia.
If the stone is less than two centimeters, the most common treatment is extracorporeal lithotripsy. This is a machine that targets the stone using x-rays as a guide and then bombards it with energy similar to ultrasound, breaking it into pieces that can be eliminated in the urine.
Duet technology uses two guns that simultaneously fire shock waves synchronously “attacking” the stone from two different angles, reducing treatment to just 15 minutes. Conventional equipment requires, on average, one hour.
We also have an innovative minimally invasive endoscopic surgical technique, which allows access to all the cavities of the kidney and ureter, with the use of a flexible instrument and by means of a laser fiber that pulverizes the stones to clean the urinary tract, thus these fragments.
“This technology allows us to treat kidney obstruction through a procedure that is very simple, safer and at the same time very effective,” says the doctor, urologist, from Medical Center.
PREVENTION
Specialists recommend drinking at least two liters of water a day (about eight glasses not including after-meal). For those who are at special risk and easily dehydrate from working with high temperatures such as bakery ovens, foundries, welding shops or their trade, they spend a long time in the street, exposed to the sun. Drinks such as soft drinks or sodas are not suitable due to their high carbonate content.
Avoid alcohol. Alcoholic beverages are generally rich in calcium, oxalate, and guanosine (which is metabolized to uric acid). Likewise, they are highly energetic (rich in empty calories, that is, not nutritious).
“There is a linear relationship between alcohol consumption and the elevation of uric acid in both blood and urine. Alcohol also increases the levels of calcium, phosphate and magnesium in the urine,” says the urologist at the Medical Center.
When the stones produce urinary obstruction or infection, it can trigger kidney function damage and lead the patient to dialysis and kidney transplantation. 20% of patients have hydronephrosis (kidney inflammation) which predisposes to kidney failure or kidney damage.
For this reason, according to doctors, these days when temperatures rise and when the body tends to dehydrate, more than usual, simply increasing water intake during the day can prevent stones, one of the most painful diseases.