What are the Treatments of Renal Cortical Cysts

Renal cyst is a common disease in the kidneys and it has many types. There are different classifications according to different standards. It can be divided into renal cortical cyst, renal medullary cyst and renal parapelvic cyst.

As its name indicates, renal cortical cyst is fluid-filled sacs located in the renal cortex and it is the most common cyst in the kidneys. Renal cortex is the outer part of the cyst which consists of renal glomeruli and renal tubules.

The cause of renal cortical cyst remains unclear at present and it is more related to the elderly people because its incidence will increase along with age. Among those that are above 50, half of them will have one or multiple simple kidney cyst and the incidence is up to more than 90% among those that are above 70 years old.

Those it is common, it usually does not cause life-threatening damages and many people even do not know that they have cysts on their kidneys. So if the cyst is small in size and does not cause obvious symptoms, most doctors will adopt a wait and see attitude and just offer regular follow-up checks every half a year to monitor the growth condition of the cyst.

However in some cases the cysts will experience rapid growth and cause many symptoms and discomforts including back pain, abdominal pain, flank pain, frequent urination, blood in urine, fever, frequent urinary tract infections, etc. In case of large cyst or severe pains and discomforts, proper treatments should be taken.

Treatments for renal cortical cysts include conservative therapy and surgical removal of the cysts. Surgical removal includes aspiration and laparascopic decortication. They are more suitable for renal cortical cysts since the cyst is located in the outer part of the kidney and they have quick effects but the effect can not last for long and the cysts will once again refilled with cystic fluid.

Conservative therapies include western medicines and Chinese medicines. Western medicines are effective on alleviating pains and discomfort and Chinese herbal medicines can treat both the primary and secondary aspects of the disease, only if it takes relatively long time to have effects. Therefore the combination of western and Chinese medicines is a good choice for renal cortical cysts.