How to Pass Stones After an ESWL

Kidney stones are mineral and acid salt build-ups that grow on the kidney's inner surface. Although most of them leave the body in urine without discomfort, they can occasionally grow large enough to get stuck in the urethra, causing extreme pain and often requiring surgical treatment. A noninvasive medical procedure called extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy, or ESWL, sends shock waves into the kidneys from outside the body to break stones smaller than 1 cm in diameter up into pieces. You can pass stones after an ESWL procedure fairly easily.

Instructions

• 1

  Drink plenty of water. Doctors recommend drinking 2 to 3 quarts a day when trying to pass a stone. This will increase the volume of urine, which will give the stone something to pass out in.

• 2

  Undergo the ESWL treatment. The shockwaves will break the stones in your kidney down into tiny pieces.

• 3

  Urinate regularly after the procedure. The stones should be reduced to grains the size of sand, which will pass without effort in the urine. Passing all of the residue can take up to three months. Blood may appear in the urine as a common side effect.

• 4

  Request follow-up treatment if pain returns. This may indicate that the shockwave treatment did not fully break up the stones. In this case, doctors may prescribe painkillers and wait for the stone to pass naturally, or bring you in for a more invasive surgical procedure called percutaneous nephrolithotomy. In this procedure, doctors cut into the kidney through an incision in the back and remove the stones through a nephroscope. They try to remove all of them to avoid any passing through the urinary tract of the patient.