Bariatric surgery raises kidney stone risk

[The Journey Messenger]

The most popular type of gastric bypass surgery appears to nearly double the chance that a patient will develop kidney stones, despite earlier assumptions that it would not, Johns Hopkins doctors report in a new study. The overall risk, however, remains fairly small at about 8 percent.


Click To Read Entire Article...

Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass A type of gastric bypass procedure which combines restrictive and malabsorption techniques - meaning, it reduces the amount of food a patient can comfortably eat (restriction), and also reduces the amount of calories that can be digested in the small intestine (malabsorption). This combination of bariatric methods leads to greater weight loss and the roux-en-y procedure is seen as one of the best ways to treat clinically severe obesity. See WLS Videos for animated surgery technique.

Kidney Stones Kidney stones -- also known as renal colic or ureterolithiasis -- results from stones or renal calculi (from Latin ren, "kidney" and calculi, "pebbles") in the ureter. The stones are solid concretions or crystal aggregations formed in the kidneys from dissolved urinary minerals. Nephrolithiasis (from Greek nephros, "kidney" and lithos, "stone") -- refers to the condition of having kidney stones. Urolithiasis refers to the condition of having calculi in the urinary tract (which also includes the kidneys), which may form or pass into the urinary bladder. Ureterolithiasis is the condition of having a calculus in the ureter, the tube connecting the kidneys and the bladder. The main symptom is severe pain that starts suddenly and may go away suddenly: Pain may be felt in the belly area or side of the back Pain may move to groin area (groin pain) or testicles (testicle pain) Other symptoms can include: Abnormal urine color Blood in the urine