“How serious are kidney stones?”
My 50 year old friend has kidney stones. How serious are kidney stones?
1 Answer
Usually not very serious. Most commonly, a person will have one or a few attacks of back/flank pain(which can be excruciating) over the years which last a few hours. Most commonly the stone is passed without needing any major treatment. So pain for a few hours is the most common symptom(along with blood in the urine) and it resolves once the stone is passed. Much less commonly, a stone can be too big to pass and can cause blockage of the kidney or ureter(and thus may require a procedure to break up the stone and allow it to pass.)
