NEW YORK, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Historically, stones were pretty much a disease of white, middle-aged men, but that has changed dramatically over the last 30 years, as the disease affects adults and children in similar ways, The Washington Post on Thursday cited doctors and experts.
A 2016 study in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology analyzed kidney stone incidence among 15-to-19-year-olds in South Carolina from 1997 through 2012. Researchers found a 28 percent increase over a five-year period for girls. For boys, that increase was 23 percent.
The economic impact of pediatric kidney stones is substantial, with hospitals in 2009 charging about 375 million U.S. dollars for inpatient and emergency department services, according to the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample, a database of emergency room visits.
"Treating stones in children can involve medical management and, in some cases, surgical intervention," noted the report. "Physicians typically begin by managing pain with over-the-counter medications or prescription drugs that help dilate the ureter muscles, enabling the stone to pass from the ureter to the bladder."
Painful chronic conditions such as kidney stones can profoundly disrupt the lives of teenagers and children, forcing them to confront challenges unfamiliar to many of their peers, it added.
