Tips for urologists

Faced with multiple medical conditions in addition to kidney stones, several patients in our community have been struggling to find a suitable diet. Higher sodium intake is recommended for conditions such as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) and low blood pressure, yet this leaves them at higher risk of kidney stones.

As proper lifestyle management is key to reducing stone recurrence, #urologists can help patients better manage their medical conditions by recommending a suitable diet.

Sources:

1. Diet and risk of kidney stones in the Oxford cohort of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)

2.Impact of Nutritional Factors on Incident Kidney Stone Formation: A Report From the WHI OS

Kidney stones are often poorly understood by unsympathetic employers who regard the condition as a “small problem”. Chronic patients are faced with the double whammy of debilitating pain and job insecurity.

What can we do to advocate for the patient and the pain they are experiencing?

Kidney Stone patients are often told that 24-hour urine tests are useful for identifying their risk factors, and the diet and lifestyle changes they can make to prevent future stones. However, more than half of patients we polled recently were unaware of what their test results meant. Many felt that the information given was generic, and lacked actionable takeaways.

Are we squandering a valuable test by failing to follow up on the results meaningfully with patients?

According to Medscape’s 2022 report on Physician Burnout and Depression, a larger proportion of female physicians have reported feeling burnout compared to their male counterparts. Both genders saw an alarming rise of 5% in reported burnout, as compared to the year before.

The largest contributor to burnout by far was bureaucratic tasks like charting and paperwork. How can we free physicians from such tasks so they can focus on what they do best?

Source: Physician Burnout & Depression Report 2022: Stress, Anxiety, and Anger

Having tried all kinds of pain medications, many chronic kidney stone patients experience pain so severe that only opioids can relieve. However, with the strict controls on opioid use in the USA, they often report being treated like junkies when requesting them at the emergency department.

How can we balance the need for controls with the need to provide relief to kidney stone patients in extreme pain?