Elizabeth Weinandy, RD
- Registered dietitian
When you’re passing a kidney stone, you want pain relief fast. But you also want to make sure you don’t have to experience that pain and other distressing symptoms again.
At The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio, our kidney stone specialists provide care to treat your acute condition while also creating a plan to manage and prevent kidney stone disease in the future.
Our multidisciplinary Metabolic Stone Clinic combines the expertise of doctors in nephrology (kidney care), urology and nutrition to monitor your health and help you make lifestyle changes to prevent kidney stones or reduce their impact.
What is the Metabolic Stone Clinic?
The Metabolic Stone Clinic provides coordinated care for people with kidney stones, especially those with frequent or rare kidney stones. Within the clinic, urologists, nephrologists and dietitians who are skilled at kidney stone prevention and management work collaboratively, allowing you to receive seamless care no matter what’s causing your kidney stones.
A kidney stone is a mass of crystalized minerals or salt that forms inside your kidneys. A stone typically doesn’t cause symptoms until it eventually moves from your kidneys to the bladder to pass out of your body when you urinate. Passing kidney stones can be extremely painful.
Metabolic disorders and other medical problems, such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension, can lead to developing kidney stones; however, if these risk factors are properly managed, the likelihood of getting kidney stones decreases by 70%.
The team at Ohio State’s Metabolic Stone Clinic can help you manage these risk factors, helping you prevent kidney stones from even forming in the first place.
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Types of kidney stones we treat
There are five main types of kidney stones, all of which can be identified and treated at the Metabolic Stone Clinic. Identifying the type of stone helps doctors know how to best treat you.
The five main types of kidney stones:
- Calcium oxalate stones
- Calcium phosphate stones
- Uric acid stones
- Struvite stones (infection stones)
- Cystine stones
Who should visit our Metabolic Stone Clinic?
Anyone who has a kidney stone or has had one in the past can be seen in the clinic. People who might benefit the most from the care at the Metabolic Stone Clinic include individuals with:
- Rare stone types, such as cystine stones
- Recurrent stones
- A strong family history of kidney stones
- Troublesome or larger stones that won’t pass
- High-risk factors for complications from stones, including chronic kidney disease or solitary kidney
- Interest in learning how to prevent stones, even those who have had only one kidney stone
Treatments and services offered in the Metabolic Stone Clinic
The Metabolic Stone Clinic offers services in every facet of kidney stone care, from diagnosis to treatment to prevention.
Diagnosing and preventing kidney stones
The Metabolic Stone Clinic offers the latest technology in kidney stone diagnosis and provides comprehensive evaluations and care. The main strategies for diagnosing kidney stones include:
- Stone analysis – Your doctor will ask you to bring kidney stones you’ve passed to your appointment. We’ll send the stones to a lab to be analyzed, and the lab will determine what kind of kidney stones you have. Your surgeon may also send a sample if you have surgery, or you’ll be sent home with a strainer after surgery.
- 24-hour urine analysis – Your doctor will have you collect a urine sample and send it to a specialized lab. The lab will evaluate the calcium, oxalate, citrate, uric acid and sodium levels in your urine. It will also look at other factors and assess your animal protein intake.
- Blood tests – Your doctor will collect a blood sample and have it tested to check your electrolyte levels, hormone levels and kidney function. Depending on your age and stone type, genetic tests may be performed as well.
- Imaging – X-rays or other imaging scans can locate where the kidney stone is in your body and whether it’s changing in size. Imaging can also help determine the cause of the kidney stone in some instances. Once the type of kidney stones and risk factors are identified, your care team will develop an individualized treatment plan for you.
Services offered in the Metabolic Stone Clinic
If you’re currently symptomatic with a kidney stone, your visits will most likely begin with a urologist to receive the treatment you need to pass the stone or relieve symptoms.
If you’re not experiencing symptoms, you’ll visit a nephrologist to evaluate your medical history and possible causes of kidney stones. Then, our multidisciplinary team will work to create a treatment and prevention strategy, which might include the following:
- Education – Your care team will spend time explaining what kind of kidney stones you have, how they are formed and what changes you can make to avoid them.
- Changes in fluid intake and diet – You should drink at least 2.5 liters of water per day and limit salt intake to 2,300 mg per day. Your doctor may recommend other changes, like increasing calcium intake, avoiding excessive nuts or limiting the amount of meat and fish you consume.
- Medication – Medications can reduce the risk of stone formation by 70%.
- Lifestyle changes – Lifestyle changes, like getting regular physical activity, can help promote a healthy weight, blood pressure and blood sugar levels, which lower your risk of forming kidney stones.
- Surgical interventions – When stones do become troublesome, procedures, such as laser lithotripsy by ureteroscopy or percutaneous nephrostomy, may be necessary.
You’ll be monitored at the Metabolic Stone Clinic, including urine collection, every few months for the first year of treatment, and then every six to nine months for follow-up appointments as needed.
Benefits of being treated for kidney stones at Ohio State
Working with a collaborative team of experts at an academic medical center within a dedicated, specialized clinic can have many benefits, including:
- A multidisciplinary approach – With nephrologists, urologists and dietitians who specialize in kidney stone care, you’re able to receive the best possible care in a timely and convenient manner.
- Close monitoring and prevention – We’ll observe you closely throughout your first few months to ensure prevention strategies are working.
- Avoidance of costly emergency department visits – With close monitoring and focus on prevention, and the quick responsiveness of our providers, we’re able to help many people avoid emergency visits or hospitalizations.
- Reduction in complications – With fewer kidney stones, you’ll lower your risk of kidney injury, chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease. Complications are also reduced because of the skilled urological surgeons and the technologies they use to improve successful stone removal when a stone does form.
- Improved quality of life – Lifestyle modifications you make through the clinic will help you not only have fewer stones, but they can also improve your overall health.
How to make an appointment with the Metabolic Stone Clinic
Your primary care doctor, urologist or nephrologist can refer you to the Metabolic Stone Clinic.
You can also call the clinic at 614-293-4837 for more information or to make an appointment.
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