One of the most commonly ignored symptoms in people would be kidney pain – this is because it is more often mistaken for back pain or just a case of a wrong body position. However, this type of discomfort should not be taken for granted since it tends to indicate the presence of a serious genitourinary problem.
The kidneys are two bean shaped organs that play a major function in the excretion of wastes and the balance of fluids and electrolytes in the body. These organs are located just a little distance from the diaphragm muscles and behind the peritoneal cavity or outside of the abdominal viscera. As such, kidney pain is one that is felt at the back and at the costovertebral angle or the angle between the twelfth ribs and the spine. Tenderness or discomfort is felt when pressure is applied in this area, and the pain may be radiated to the sides of the body, upper quadrant of the abdomen, the umbilical area of the body, and the groin.
However, the area is also situated near other organs of the body and as such, is mistaken for colonic, splenic, pancreatic and liver problems, menstrual or voluntary pain among women, and too much stretching or trauma of the back muscles.
The thing that may further differentiate pain in the kidney from other conditions would be the accompanying discomforts such as the presence of discomfort upon urination described as burning or stinging pain, difficulty to urinate because of the irregular urine flow, inability to initiate urination; changes in the amount, turbidity and color of the urine can also be observed to become tea like or darker in color and becoming more scanty in amount; blood and other sediments may also be present in the urine, and in rarer circumstances, fever and chills can be seen. Other associated symptoms that directly show that a problem is present in the kidneys include the presence of sharp, piercing flank pain; feeling or actual episodes of being nauseous and vomiting; changes in the frequency of urination, changes in the eating pattern such as lack of appetite and sudden weight changes, easy fatigability, pain in the joints, presence of swelling in the legs and feet, increasing blood pressure, and skin changes.
No one can assess and truly differentiate pain from the kidneys and other organs than your doctor, hence, kidney pain must be taken seriously and notified to the health care provider as soon as possible in order to run diagnostic procedures to identify what causes the problem, and render prompt intervention to manage the condition. This type of pain is indicative of the presence of kidney injury and infection, inflammation of the kidneys, presence of stones in the organs, carcinoma of the kidneys and other related conditions such as renal failure and deprivation of blood flow in these organs. As such, intervention and management may be done as soon as the cause of the condition is identified before complications, long term damage and possibly death occur due to the progression of the condition.

In order to completely relieve the pain from kidney infection, the patient should first treat the underlying cause which is the infection. Consult with the doctor for the prescription of anti-bacterial medications the patient has to take. The two kinds of kidney infection, glomerulonephritis and pyelonephritis, have different treatment therapy. The anti-bacterial therapy for glomerulonephritis would usually take 2 to 3 weeks while long-term anti-bacterial therapy may be needed for pyelonephritis. Aside from the medications, it is very important that the patient will take a rest and receive symptomatic care from a caregiver.





