What are the symptoms of kidney stones?

The presence of stones in the urinary system, in the kidney, ureter and in the urinary bladder can cause abdominal pain.

Symptoms of Kidney Stones

  • Localized pain depending on the positioning of the stone
  • Pain during urination
  • Cloudy urine
  • Odd-smelling urine
  • A need to urinate more frequently than usual
  • If blood is present in the urine due to kidney stones, urine may appear brown, red or pink.

Other Symptoms

Other symptoms may include:

  • Nausea
  • Vomiting
  • Chills
  • Fever

Description of Pain

In these cases pain is very particular. It is severe and sudden, it initially affects the waist and engulfs both sides of the abdomen extending to the lower part of the belly. Usually the pain is experienced either late at night, or early in the morning.

During the experiencing of pain, the patient switches posture extremely frequently in order to attempt to lessen the pain, the patient is restless.

Pain is accompanied by:

  • Vomiting and nausea
  • Bloating of the abdomen
  • And often with dysuria phenomena such as frequent urination, incontinence, pain, burning sensation during urination, blood in the urine, etc.

    In these cases, the patient should not consume liquids since they increase pressure in the urinary tract.

The presence of fever is related to the presence of infection (infection usually causes the fever).

Medically Reviewed by a doctor on 23 Jan 2018
Medical Author: Dr. med. Diana Hysi