Does kidney stones affect the fetus during pregnancy?

If you are found to have kidney stones during a physical examination during pregnancy, you should seek early treatment. If the stones fall into the pelvic cavity, it will cause abdominal pain, and in severe cases it may lead to miscarriage. Early treatment of kidney stones can make the disease better healed and ensure the safety of the fetus. Pregnant women should also learn some knowledge about medicinal diet to ensure that the fetus is adequately nourished while preventing diseases.

If the kidney stones are large staghorn-shaped stones, they will have no effect on the fetus and relevant care can be provided to maintain the pregnancy.

If there are many small stones, once the small stones fall into the ureter after pregnancy, they will cause colic, hydronephrosis, and acute abdominal surgery, which is not good for the fetus and the pregnant woman, affecting the baby's health and causing serious pain and harm to the adult's body.

Treatment of kidney stones in pregnant women includes the following:

(1) Patients with kidney stones should drink plenty of water: try to maintain daily urine volume at 2-3L.

(2) In case of acute renal colic, antispasmodics can be used to relieve pain.

(3) Use medication to expel stones.

(4) Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy: ESWL causes little damage to the human body and is easy to operate, but it requires the ureter on the affected side to be unobstructed and the renal function to be good. The best effect is achieved for stones with a diameter of less than 2 cm. 3. Intracavitary surgical treatment: Use percutaneous nephrolithotomy or ureteroscopy combined with electrohydraulic, ultrasonic, pneumatic ballistic, laser and other lithotripsy methods to crush the stones and remove them.

【Extended Reading】Postoperative Care for Kidney Stones

1. Drink plenty of water, at least 2000~3000ml of water every day to dilute urine and make stones easier to excrete. In addition to drinking plenty of water during the day, you must also drink 500ml of water before going to bed, and drink another 200ml of water after getting up to urinate during sleep. Drinking more water can flush urinary stones, dilute urine and change urine pH.

2. Proper adjustment of diet can prevent the regeneration of stones. Patients with calcium stones should eat less foods high in calcium, such as milk; patients with oxalate stones should eat less spinach, potatoes, beans and strong tea. Patients with phosphate stones should eat a low-phosphorus, low-calcium diet and take ammonium chloride orally to acidify the urine. Patients with urate stones should eat less purine-containing foods, such as animal offal. Meat and beans, oral carbon dioxide can make urine alkaline, which is also beneficial for the dissolution of urate stones.

3. Observe the stone excretion phenomenon. If the colic site moves downward, it indicates that the stone has moved downward. If the pain suddenly disappears, the stone may have entered the bladder. At this time, the patient should try to urinate to expel the stone.

4. Increase physical activities. In addition to drinking more water, you should also increase recreational activities, such as jumping, to make it easier to expel kidney stones.

Warm reminder: Clinically, it has been found that for patients with mild kidney stones, kidney stones can be eliminated by drinking plenty of water. Therefore, middle-aged female friends with kidney stones are encouraged to increase their water intake. It is best to drink more than 200 ml of water a day, which can help alleviate the condition of kidney stones.