Kidney Stones in Children

What is a kidney stone?

A kidney stone is a solid piece of material that forms in a kidney when substances that are normally found in the urine become highly concentrated. A stone may stay in the kidney or travel down the urinary tract. From smaller pieces to large stones, kidney stones vary in size.

A small stone may pass out of the body causing little or no pain. A larger stone may get stuck along the urinary tract and can block the flow of urine, causing severe pain or blood that can be seen in the urine.

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Polycystic kidney disease is a genetic disorder that causes numerous cysts to grow in the kidneys. A kidney cyst is an abnormal sac filled with fluid. PKD cysts can greatly enlarge the kidneys while replacing much of their normal structure, resulting in chronic kidney disease (CKD), which causes reduced kidney function over time. CKD may lead to kidney failure, described as end-stage kidney disease or ESRD when treated with a kidney transplant or blood-filtering treatments called dialysis. The two main types of PKD are autosomal dominant PKD and autosomal recessive PKD.

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Prostate cancer is a frightening condition for any man, and certainly one of the most dreaded diagnoses. The good news, however, is that prostate cancer is highly treatable and actually has extremely good survival rates – so long as it is caught early.

This is why getting a prostate cancer biopsy is such a wise move. As much as this might be uncomfortable and scary, if it leads to the condition being caught early, it could prevent a far more serious outcome and much more uncomfortable procedures.

But what should you expect from the procedure? How effective is it? And is it painful?

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If you have been diagnosed with prostate cancer, then this is likely to have knocked you for six. This is an extremely frightening diagnosis and one that is also fraught with other personal issues. You may feel scared, you might worry about the future, and you might even feel embarrassed to talk about it. There is a lot to work through.

Although prostate cancer requires lifelong monitoring, the good news is that prostate cancer is a highly treatable issue when caught early and has a very high recovery rate. There are lots of treatment options, and not all of these are highly invasive.

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Testicular torsion is the stuff of literal nightmares for many men, and the reality is not much kinder than it sounds! The frightening thing about testicular torsion is that it can occur unprompted. That is to say that you can go to sleep one night and wake up in the morning with torsion. Testicular torsion is extremely painful and frightening and should be considered a medical emergency. But why is a twisted testicle an emergency? Let’s explore this further.

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