What you need to know about kidney stones

Kidney stones are abnormal, hard, chemical deposits that form inside the kidneys. This condition also is called nephrolithiasis or urolithiasis. Kidney stones are often as small as grains of sand and pass out of the body in urine without causing discomfort. The deposits can be the size of a pea, a marble or even larger. Some of these larger stones are too big to be flushed from the kidney. Others manage to travel into the narrow tube between the kidney and bladder (ureter), where they become trapped. Trapped kidney stones can cause many different symptoms, including extreme pain, blocked urine flow and bleeding from the walls of the urinary tract.

Kidney stones are a very common problem, affecting 10% of people in the United States. There are several different types of stones, and a variety of reasons why stones form. Doctors have grouped kidney stones into four different families, based on their chemical composition.

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