History of Urinary Stone Disease

Urinary stones have affected mankind since time immemorial. It would be fascinating to know that the first evidence of urinary stones dates back to 4800 B.C., when a bladder stone was discovered in Egyptian mummy at E1 Amrah –Egypt. Information about urinary stone disease can also be found in ancient Sanskrit literature in India.

A simple mechanism to understand stone formation

Imagine a glass of water containing little salt .If you add some more salt, it dissolves. When you add more and more salt, a stage is reached when the water is no longer able to dissolve the salt added to it. This is because the solution is supersaturated with the salt.Above this point , any little amount of salt added to the solution will start precipitating. This is exactly the mechanism by which stones form except that the solution is urine and the chemical composition of the salt is different. There are 3 main ways by which stones form in the urinary tract.

First a crystal has to form, then it has to grow and then a large number of such grown - up crystals has to aggregate to each other before it becomes large enough to block the urinary passage.

It would be comforting to know that nature has it own protective mechanisms to prevent stone formation. Yes ! there are certain substances in urine which interfere with the growth and aggregation of crystals which are responsible for stone formation.It is because of the presence of these substances in urine that most of us do not form stones. The stone forming substances are kept in a dissolved state in our urine.

Types of Renal Stones

There are various types of urinary stones, but the most common ones are calcium oxalate, uric acid, struvite and cystine stones.

Symptoms of stone in the kidney or ureter

Stones in the kidney or ureter do not cause any symptoms until and unless they obstruct the urinary passage. The nature and the location of the pain can vary from person to person depending upon the size of the stone, the position of the stone within the urinary tract, and the damage it causes to the urinary system.

It should be however remembered that the size of the stone does not interfere with the severity of the pain. For example even very small stones in the ureter can cause lot of pain whereas large stones which develop in the kidney or urinary bladder may not produce pain at all, or may be associated with a dull ache only.

Stones in the kidney may produce a deep, dull ache in the loin or back which might be mild, moderate or severe. Some stones may cause a dull or sharp pain in the abdomen below the ribs. It may be present throughtout the day and it is difficult to be ignored.

Stones which move down into the ureter (ie) the tube which carries urine away from the kidney cause lot of pain