Can you rest assured after kidney stone surgery? Don’t relax during postoperative care!

Kidney stones are caused by abnormal accumulation of some crystalline substances (such as calcium, oxalic acid, uric acid, cystine) and organic matrices (matrix A, acidic mucopolysaccharides, etc.) in the kidneys. Kidney stone surgery is the most commonly used method for treating kidney stones, mainly including conventional open surgery and minimally invasive surgery. Conventional open surgery includes pyelotomy and percutaneous nephrolithotomy. Another method is minimally invasive surgery. Currently, there are two methods of minimally invasive surgery: antegrade and retrograde, also known as percutaneous nephrolithotomy and fiber soft nephrolithotomy. The antegrade method may cause kidney perforation. It is used for relatively large stones in the kidneys. There is also a retrograde method, which is to use a mirror to find the stones along the ureter, crush them with a laser, and discharge the stones along the ureter. So what care should be taken after kidney stone surgery? This article discusses this topic.

Kidney Stone Surgery

Kidney stone surgery is a treatment for large stones. It mainly involves surgically removing stones from the kidneys. There are two main surgical methods for kidney stones, one is conventional open surgery and the other is minimally invasive surgery. Patients should choose the appropriate surgical method based on their symptoms and doctor's instructions.

1. Pyelotomy and renal parenchymal lithotomy: Pyelotomy is the most commonly used traditional method for treating kidney stones. Specifically, this operation is mainly suitable for the treatment of intrarenal renal pelvic stones, and can be used for patients with larger extrarenal stones and dilated infundibulum. If examination finds that the patient has staghorn renal pelvic stones or multiple stones, it is best to use renal parenchymal lithotomy to treat the patient in time. Specifically, the thinnest part of the patient's renal parenchyma should be incised, and the amount of bleeding should be controlled as soon as possible on the basis of stone removal.

2. Percutaneous nephrolithotomy and fiberoptic flexible nephrolithotomy: Percutaneous nephrolithotomy is a high-tech device with the advantages of high safety, less trauma and high cure rate. It has become the first choice for patients. Patients with kidney stones can also be treated through another surgery. At present, most patients use fiberoptic flexible nephrolithotomy, which inserts a ureteroscope and zebra guidewire into the external urethral orifice, combines neodymium laser and holmium laser to break up the stones, and uses negative pressure suction to achieve healing.

What nursing precautions should be taken after kidney stone surgery?

It is extremely important to provide postoperative care for patients with kidney stones. First of all, patients need to drink enough water after surgery, and the daily water intake should be no less than 2500-3000 ml. This will make patients produce a lot of urine, thereby flushing the kidneys and urethra. The remaining stone fragments can also be cleaned up to help heal the patient's kidney damage. Patients can also eat more watermelons, because watermelon acts as a diuretic. Patients need to pay attention to their diet after surgery, eat more light food, and reduce the consumption of processed foods as much as possible to reduce sodium intake, and try to reduce the consumption of foods with high oxalic acid content such as spinach and tea, reduce the intake of oxalic acid, and reduce the intake of animal protein, that is, meat, to reduce the possibility of stone formation. Some patients have the habit of drinking milk. It is generally not recommended for patients with kidney stones to drink milk before going to bed. Milk contains a lot of calcium. Excessive calcium intake will affect urine concentration, which will increase the burden on the patient's kidneys and will not help the recovery or treatment of the disease. After kidney stone surgery, in order to reduce secondary damage to the human body, the patient's urine volume, urine color, low back pain, fever and other discomfort symptoms should be closely monitored in the short term, and regular follow-up and long-term observation should be conducted. There are corresponding precautions for different kidney stone surgeries. For example, after fiber flexible nephrolithotomy, in addition to monitoring whether there is frequent urination, urgency, and pain when urinating, attention should also be paid to whether there are residual stones in the urine and whether there is sudden renal colic. In addition, if the patient has undergone percutaneous nephrolithotomy, an artificial channel needs to be established.

After the operation, patients with kidney stones can generally resume normal life. Patients can start walking exercises and continuously extend the exercise time. They should not be too tired at the beginning. To avoid scars at the incision, they should not lift heavy objects within 6 months after the operation. They should also avoid catching a cold and not expel the stones through strenuous activities. Avoid causing the soft hook of the double tail fiber tube to rub the ureter or renal mucosa, thereby causing capillary bleeding. Due to the high recurrence rate of kidney stones, careful follow-up and detailed examination are required after the operation. It is recommended that patients come to the hospital for examination every six months. Patients undergoing kidney stone surgery need to pay great attention to their physical condition, refer to the doctor's advice, and go to the hospital for regular examinations.

Conclusion: Reasonable postoperative care for patients with kidney stones can achieve good treatment results, change patients' eating habits, enhance patients' exercise awareness, and be beneficial to patients' postoperative recovery. After surgery, patients suffer varying degrees of damage to their bodies, which requires patients to pay close attention to their bodies and adopt correct care methods to restore their bodies to health as soon as possible.