Acupuncture Technology News

Last week I received a phone call from a frantic wife, asking if I could help her husband with acupuncture. She claimed that he was experiencing labor pains… Okay, so he wasn’t REALLY having a baby, but he WAS passing a kidney stone. From his description, the kidney stone was at least as big as a “10 pound baby.”

I get phone calls on a daily basis from potential patients asking if I can help with certain ailments–many of which, I treat on a daily basis. The things I treat regularly become second nature. But, I’ll be honest, I don’t get very many calls from patients who are in the acute phase of a kidney stone attack. I knew that this was something I had learned about in college and that acupuncture could help, so I told her to bring him right in.

Case Study:

Chief complaint: Acute onset of kidney stone attack

The patient, a 57-year-old male, had worked all day at his office experiencing dull aching pain in his lower back, on the right, and hourly urination. Urination was not painful. As the day progressed, the pain became more intense and radiated into his groin and testicles. He went to the emergency room because the pain continued to increase to a 9 out of 10. The doctors tested him for blood in the urine, which was positive, even though it could not be seen with the visible eye. A CT scan confirmed that he had a “small” kidney stone which had progressed three quarters of the way down the ureter. He was given medication to dilate the ureter and relieve pain. Then his doctor sent him home to wait it out.

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