How to Treat Renal Cortical Cyst

Renal cortical cyst is one common type of simple kidney cyst and cortical means that the cyst is located at the renal cortex which is the outer structure of kidney. It has been reported that renal cortical cyst and renal parapelvic cyst account for about 60-65% of all kidney masses. And the incidence of renal cortical cyst increase as people are getting older.

In most cases renal cortical cysts are benign and they cause no obvious symptoms or discomforts when they are small in size(smaller than 3cm). However, they will experience slow but progressive growth and enlargement. When they are large enough to stretch renal capsules or oppress surrounding organs such as the stomach and intestines or in case of cyst rupture, cyst bleeding or cyst infections, renal cortical cyst can cause abdominal pain, back pain or even blood in urine.

The following are the treatment options for treating renal cortical cysts:

Regular follow-up checks

When the cortical cyst in kidney is small in size, usually less than 3cm and if there is no obvious symptoms, the doctor will just adopt a wait and see attitude and offer no special treatment except an order of re-examination within 6-12 months.

Renal cyst puncture

Renal cyst is to insert a fine needle through the skin into the renal cortical cyst and drain the fluid out of the cyst and then alcohol will be injected into the cyst to harden the cyst. Since renal cortical cyst is just located at the outer layer of the cyst, it is very simple to operate puncture, but the disadvantage is that the cyst will be re-filled with fluid after a period of time.

Laparoscopic decortication

It is to cut the surface of the cyst under the guidance of B ultrasound and then the affected tissues will be burned. It requires overnight hospitalization.

Anyway, since the sufferers of renal cortical cysts are mostly above their 50s and some are even more than 70s, some may not want to have surgery. The following is one more natural and conservative therapy.

Micro-Chinese medicines

It is to micronize the medicines and then put the medicine powder into medicated bags which will then be soaked into solution. During the treatment, two medicated bags will be put at the patient’s renal areas and active ingredients in the medicines can penetrate into the renal cortical cyst through meridians in the skin. Micro-Chinese medicines can not remove the cyst but can shrink the cyst little by little. What is more, the treatment is natural, safe and comfortable and is more suitable for the elderly patients.