Kidney stones
Kidney stones, one of the most painful of the urologic disorders, are not a product of modern life. Scientists have found evidence of kidney stones in a 7,000-year-old Egyptian mummy. Unfortunately, kidney stones are one of the most common disorders of the urinary tract; patients made more than 1.3 million visits to health care providers to have their stones treated in 1997. In 1999, more than a quarter million hospitalized patients had a diagnosis of kidney stones. An estimated 10 percent of people in the United States will have a kidney stone at some point in their lives. Men tend to be affected more frequently than women.
Most kidney stones pass out of the body without any intervention by a physician. Stones that cause lasting symptoms or other complications may be treated by various techniques, most of which do not involve major surgery. Also, research advances have led to a better understanding of the many factors that promote stone formation.
