Cysts in Kidney will Cause Abdominal Pains

Cysts in kidneys mean there is one or multiple fluid-filled sacs in one or both the kidneys. There are some common renal cystic diseases such as simple kidney cyst, parapelvic cyst and polycystic kidney disease, etc. As the development of medical science, population of physical examination and the wide use of B ultrasound and CT scan, the detection rate of renal cystic disease is on the rise and it has become a common kidney disease in clinic. Some renal tumors such as cystic renal carcinoma will form cystic structure due to necrosis and cavity and they should be distinguished with kidney cysts.

Usually when the cyst is small in size (less than 3cm), no symptoms will be caused and some patients can even go through their entire life without the cyst affecting their normal life, so they even do not know that they have cysts on their kidneys. It is often found by accident in physical examination or CT scan done for other medical conditions. Some patients may feel pains in the back and abdomen, but the pain is usually not directly related to the cysts. However the cysts will continue to enlarge and when it is too large there will be obvious clinical symptoms. Especially in case of cyst bleeding or cyst infections, there will be obvious abdominal pains and discomforts.

In some cases, the cyst may oppress the ureteral or calyces and it will cause hydronephrosis and secondary infections. Patients will have symptoms of back pain, fever and urinary tract infection, etc. In very rare case, simple kidney cyst has the possibility of cancerization thought the incidence is very low (about 1%) especially in case of cyst bleeding.

If the cyst begins to cause abdominal pains and other discomforts, patients should receive proper and timely treatments. At present the commonly used treatments for kidney cysts are acupuncture and laparoscopic decortication which aims to remove the cyst and the symptoms caused by enlarged cysts will disappear. However one shortcoming is that these therapies can be used for large cysts and the recurrent rate is high.