A new study has shown that many children who suffer from kidney stones don’t have the classical symptoms associated with the condition, such as painful, bloody urination.
A report published in Pediatrics shows that more than half of the 100 patients studied did not have a history of painful or bloody urination. Lead researcher Dr. Cesare Polito and his colleagues also found that only about one-third of the group of three to 18 year olds studied had blood in their urine when seen by the pediatricians.
Many of the children did not have the flank pain typically associated with kidney stones, instead having general pain in the abdomen.
The take home message: Doctors, and their parents, should consider kidney stones in kids with recurrent abdominal pain, especially those who have a history of such stones in the family, even if painful and blood urination is absent.
