Multiple UTI’s
Dr. Naveen Kachroo
Video Transcript
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.