Abstract
Acute onset flank pain with accompanying nausea, vomiting, anorexia, and hematuria is known as renal colic, and may indicate a renal or ureteral stone. Initial therapy is supportive and is directed at symptom control, including analgesia and hydration. In patients with well-controlled pain with no evidence of sepsis and adequate renal functional reserve, observation with medical expulsive therapy may be an option to facilitate stone passage without active urologic instrumentation. Key medications for this include tamsulosin and nifedipine. Patients who elect to trial medical expulsive therapy should be closely followed by their urologist.
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Notes
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Although these may not be absolute contraindications, they should only be attempted in the most compliant patients who are amenable to extremely close (weekly) follow-up.
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Scales, C.D., Cone, E.G. (2015). Acute Renal Colic and Medical Expulsive Therapy. In: Monga, M., Penniston, K., Goldfarb, D. (eds) Pocket Guide to Kidney Stone Prevention. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11098-1_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11098-1_16
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