Kidney Stones & Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs)

Hi, my name is Naveen Kachroo

and I’m a urologist who is specialized in treating kidney stones and also part of the Kidney Stone Collaborative

where our team is committed to help you through the journey

with your kidney stones.

We’ve received some really excellent questions from our

worst pain ever community,

and one of the questions we received was,

can having multiple urinary tract

infections increase my stone risk?

This is a really great question,

and the answer is absolutely yes.

Urinary tract infections

or UTIs have been linked

to kidney stones in about 30% of our kidney stone.

Patients with higher rates amongst females,

many different bacteria can cause UTIs

and they can often lead to chemical changes in the urine

that put you at higher risk of developing stones.

There are certain types of bacteria, uh, that can cause UTIs

that can make your urine more alkaline

and can actually help produce a particular type of stone

that you may have heard called strite stones.

And these stones can grow very quickly and become very large

and complex and actually fill most of the kidney to form

what we call a staghorn calculus.

So it’s really important that if you do have a urine

infection that you manage and treat it promptly.

Getting chronic or recurrent urinary tract infections in

general can also really change that urine environment

to increase your risk of getting more of the kind

of common stones like the calcium based stones as well.

Some of the studies have shown that proactive interventions

to treat your stones

and remove them, especially if you do have recurrent

infections, can also be helpful in preventing you

getting those infections.

There are many risk factors that can put you at risk

of getting more uti I, so I do recommend that you work

with your doctor in preventing urinary RET tract infections.

Part of that is that sort of great hydration therapy,

but there may be other reasons as

to why you’re getting those infections,

so it’d be really important as part

of your kidney stone prevention plan to work on those.

Thank you.