On June 5, 2021, MOHAN Foundation in partnership with Care for Your Kidney Foundation conducted a webinar on “Prevent Kidney stone, Prevent Kidney Disease”, as part of an awareness series on ‘Prevention of kidney diseases’ initiated by both the Foundations.

Mrs. Lalitha Raghuram, Country Director, MOHAN Foundation welcomed everyone and introduced the speaker, Dr. Krishna Patil (MBBS, MD, DM, FASN, FICN(Canada)), a consultant nephrologist and transplant physician at Sunshine hospital, Hyderabad.

Dr. Patil began by explaining what kidney stones are. He shared some facts relating to the kidney stones such as -

1) Kidney stones have affected mankind since 4000BC,

2) It was first recorded it the pelvis of an ancient Egyptian mummy,

3) Kidney stones can reach an exceptional size of 2 kg,

4) It occurs mostly in men in the age of group of 20-49

He explained that kidney stones were fairly common and that 50% of those who had kidney stones may have a recurrence within 5 years and 80% of the kidney stones are Calcium oxalate stones.

He then went on to share some main causes of kidney stones such as - not drinking enough fluids, genetic predisposition, obesity, medications, and food. Some other causes included metabolic abnormalities, chronic infection, obstruction to urine flow. Major risk factors causing calcium stones could be one of the following – Urinary, Anatomic, Diet and other medical conditions.

He then spoke about the typical symptoms of kidney stones such as -

1) Severe pain in the side and back, below the ribs

2) Pain that spreads to the lower abdomen and groin

3) Pains that comes in waves and fluctuates in intensity

He also touched upon typical location of kidney stones and spoke about the diagnosis and tests such as USG, NCCT scan, etc. He emphasised the importance of preventing obesity and consuming foods that are kidney stone - friendly.

Ms. Jaya Jairam thanked Dr. Patil for his presentation that was simple and provided excellent information. The audience’s questions were then posed to Dr. Patil, which he patiently answered. A few of them are shared below –

• Why do kidney stones keep recurring?
• Which are the prescribed diagnostic tests for aged people not showing any symptoms?
• How can we maintain our creatinine levels?
• Will kidney stone stand in way of kidney donation?
• Can alternate medicines be consumed for treating kidney stones?

Finally, Ms. Jaya Jairam thanked Dr. Patil for his valuable time and for sharing tips on kidney stone prevention.

This session was aired live on Facebook and YouTube. In all, 2028 persons viewed the session (1794 people were reached on Facebook, with 35 engagements and 234 people viewed on YouTube).

Click here to watch the video