Kidney Back Pain – Causes, Symptoms, Treatment, Prevention

Kidney Back Pain or simply called as Kidney Pain is difficult to diagnose since a pain on your back can be due to several reasons. All the time Kidneys are not involved in causing pain. Kidneys are located high on your back placed just below the lower ribs. Only through other signs you can confirm that pain is due to kidney problem. A pair of kidneys lies just below the diaphragm at the far end of the abdomen and any abnormality in the kidney will cause dull kidney pain.

Kidney pain is marked by dull (often one sided) pain on your lower back along with or without Fever and urinary symptoms. Any infection on your kidneys (Pyelonephritis) can cause kidney back pain. When there are stones in the kidney and it moves it can hurt you badly giving sharp pain. You can feel sharp staggering pain when the kidney stone travels to bladder. Such pain due to the movement of Kidney Stones is called colic.

Kidney Back Pain Causes :

There are many reasons for getting kidney back pain. Kidney stone is formed due to building of excess of uric acid and calcium on the bladder. The size of the stones can be smaller or larger and it causes intense pain in the back during mornings. Pyelonephritis also called as kidney infection can cause severe back pain. This is caused by bacteria and some amount of urine is sent into the ureter through back pressure. Very often individuals with kidney stone will get kidney infection. The pain will be sharp and severe on your back to identify this problem.

Urinary tract infection commonly called UTI can cause kidney back pain. It is caused due to gram negative bacteria and can be identified by the presence of blood in the urine. Irritation while passing urine and passing only few drops of urine are important symptoms of UTI. When there is hemorrhage or bleeding in your kidney it can hurt you very well. A blood clot formed on the arteries of the kidney is called Ischemia or arteriosclerosis and it can cause intense pain.

Swelling of kidney or any inflammation or presence of fluid (hydronephrosis) can cause intense pain. Presence of Tumor, kidney Cancer, infection, kidney disease, horseshoe kidney, cyst in the kidney, Blood Clots in the veins of kidney and urinary tract infection are some of the causes of kidney pain.

Actually back pain is caused by many factors apart from kidney. Mild to severe form of back pain can occur due to spinal fracture, Osteoporosis, lumbar disc herniation and bone fracture. Even Stress and emotion can cause back pain. Pregnancy is one of the main reasons for low back pain. Gradual block in the normal urine flow can also cause kidney pain.

Kidney Back Pain Symptoms :

You need to check for other symptoms before concluding that your back pain is due to kidney pain. People may have urinary disorder, nausea, vomiting, low grade fever, loss of appetite, swelling in extremities (hands and legs), and pain in the groin area if the reason is kidney back pain.

Often, the movement of kidney stones causes intense back pain. Stones are not formed all on a sudden. Certain chemicals like calcium, uric acid builds up in excess in the kidneys unable to be washed out. Further they travel into the bladder forming small sized stones. These stones will get blocked in the tiny tube of ureter (through which urine is flushed out) thus preventing the normal flow of urine. This causes inflammation of the kidney and pain.

Diagnoses :

Your doctor will look for other symptoms apart from back pain. He would request for abdomen X-ray, CT scan or MRI scan of the abdomen for detecting kidney stone.

Kidney Back Pain Treatment :

Treatment of kidney pain varies with respect to the causative factor. Antibiotics are given for treating infection on the kidney. Medications are prescribed to dissolve kidney stones. Hence your doctor will find the root cause of back pain before starting any mode of treatment. Mild form of back pain can be managed by giving warm compression massage at home.

Kidney stones are predominantly formed due to Dehydration. You need to drink plenty of water for preventing kidney stones. Your doctor may give diuretics to flush out excess of uric acid from the stones. Most of the small sized stones can be removed by medications. Only large sized stone needs to be operated and removed. Lithotripsy is done for sending shock waves for crushing the stone inside which is eventually flushed out through urine.

Antibiotics like Sulfamethoxazole, quinolones, levoflaxacin and penicillin are prescribed for treating kidney infection. You can drink cranberry juice available in supermarkets to prevent getting stones in your kidney. Kidney back pain due to cancer is treated through surgery, immunotherapy, and cryoablation or radiofrequency ablation methods. For polycystic kidney disease, drinking plenty of fluids can help to get relief from symptoms. Further your doctor would recommend low sodium diet along with drugs for controlling Blood Pressure. In rare cases, surgery is done for removing the cysts from the kidney.

Prevention :

Drink at least 8-10 glasses of water each day. You can also have fresh fruit juices of watermelons, grapes and cucumber for flushing kidney stones. Do not take excess of calcium without consulting your doctor since it can lead to kidney stone formation. Restrict the amount of fish and meat to prevent getting uric acid stones. Whenever you feel like urinating you should not wait or suppress the urge, since it can lead to uric acid formation in the kidneys. You can prevent most of the urinary tract infection by drinking plenty of water.

Kidney Back Pain

Kidney Back Pain






Kidney back pain or simply called as kidney pain is difficult to diagnose since a pain on your back can be due to several reasons. All the time kidneys are not involved in causing pain. Kidneys are located high on your back placed just below the lower ribs. Only through other signs you can confirm that pain is due to kidney problem. A pair of kidneys lies just below the diaphragm at the far end of the abdomen and any abnormality in the kidney will cause dull kidney pain.

Kidney pain is marked by dull (often one sided) pain on your lower back along with or without fever and urinary symptoms. Any infection on your kidneys (Pyelonephritis) can cause kidney back pain. When there are stones in the kidney and it moves it can hurt you badly giving sharp pain. You can feel sharp staggering pain when the kidney stone travels to bladder. Such pain due to the movement of Kidney Stones is called colic.

Causes :

There are many reasons for getting kidney back pain. Kidney stone is formed due to building of excess of uric acid and calcium on the bladder. The size of the stones can be smaller or larger and it causes intense pain in the back during mornings.

Pyelonephritis also called as kidney infection can cause severe back pain. This is caused by bacteria and some amount of urine is sent into the ureter through back pressure. Very often individuals with kidney stone will get kidney infection. The pain will be sharp and severe on your back to identify this problem.

Urinary Tract Infection commonly called UTI can cause kidney back pain. It is caused due to gram negative bacteria and can be identified by the presence of blood in the urine. Irritation while passing urine and passing only few drops of urine are important symptoms of UTI. When there is hemorrhage or bleeding in your kidney it can hurt you very well. A blood clot formed on the arteries of the kidney is called Ischemia or arteriosclerosis and it can cause intense pain.

Swelling of kidney or any inflammation or presence of fluid (hydronephrosis) can cause intense pain. Presence of tumor, Kidney Cancer, infection, kidney disease, horseshoe kidney, cyst in the kidney, Blood Clots in the veins of kidney and urinary tract infection are some of the causes of kidney pain.

Actually back pain is caused by many factors apart from kidney. Mild to severe form of back pain can occur due to spinal fracture, Osteoporosis, lumbar disc herniation and bone fracture. Even stress and emotion can cause back pain. Pregnancy is one of the main reasons for low back pain. Gradual block in the normal urine flow can also cause kidney pain.

Symptoms :

You need to check for other symptoms before concluding that your back pain is due to kidney pain. People may have urinary disorder, nausea, vomiting, low grade fever, loss of appetite, swelling in extremities (hands and legs), and pain in the groin area if the reason is kidney back pain.

Often, the movement of kidney stones causes intense back pain. Stones are not formed all on a sudden. Certain chemicals like calcium, uric acid builds up in excess in the kidneys unable to be washed out. Further they travel into the bladder forming small sized stones. These stones will get blocked in the tiny tube of ureter (through which urine is flushed out) thus preventing the normal flow of urine. This causes inflammation of the kidney and pain.

Diagnoses :

Your doctor will look for other symptoms apart from back pain. He would request for abdomen X-ray, CT scan or MRI scan of the abdomen for detecting kidney stone.

Treatment :

Treatment of kidney pain varies with respect to the causative factor. Antibiotics are given for treating infection on the kidney. Medications are prescribed to dissolve kidney stones. Hence your doctor will find the root cause of back pain before starting any mode of treatment. Mild form of back pain can be managed by giving warm compression massage at home.

Kidney stones are predominantly formed due to dehydration. You need to drink plenty of water for preventing kidney stones. Your doctor may give diuretics to flush out excess of uric acid from the stones. Most of the small sized stones can be removed by medications. Only large sized stone needs to be operated and removed. Lithotripsy is done for sending shock waves for crushing the stone inside which is eventually flushed out through urine.

Antibiotics like Sulfamethoxazole, quinolones, levoflaxacin and penicillin are prescribed for treating kidney infection. You can drink cranberry juice available in supermarkets to prevent getting stones in your kidney. Kidney back pain due to cancer is treated through surgery, immunotherapy, and cryoablation or radiofrequency ablation methods.

For polycystic kidney disease, drinking plenty of fluids can help to get relief from symptoms. Further your doctor would recommend low sodium diet along with drugs for controlling Blood Pressure. In rare cases, surgery is done for removing the cysts from the kidney.

Prevention :

Drink at least 8-10 glasses of water each day. You can also have fresh fruit juices of watermelons, grapes and cucumber for flushing kidney stones. Do not take excess of calcium without consulting your doctor since it can lead to kidney stone formation. Restrict the amount of fish and meat to prevent getting uric acid stones. Whenever you feel like urinating you should not wait or suppress the urge, since it can lead to uric acid formation in the kidneys. You can prevent most of the urinary tract infection by drinking plenty of water.

Kidney Back Pain – Location, Symptoms, Causes, Treatment

Kidney Back Pain – Location, Symptoms, Causes, Treatment

Kidney Back Pain Location

The kidneys are located fairly high in the back, right under the lower ribs. So pain located in the upper back that is a dull, one-sided ache, especially when there is fever as well as urinary symptoms, can be actual kidney pain, caused by a kidney infection or Pyelonephritis.

Kidney Back Pain Symptoms

• Dull ache


• Occurs on only one side


• Fever


• Other signs of urinary symptoms

Kidney Back Pain Causes

The causes for pain from the kidneys consist of:

• Horseshoe kidney


• Arteriosclerosis/atherosclerosis of the renal artery


• Bleeding in the kidney – hemorrhage


• Kidney Cancer


• Renal vein thrombosis


• Hydronephrosis


• Kidney infection or pyelonephritis


• Urinary Tract Infection


• Polycystic kidney disease

Kidney Stones usually do create pain but it is not kidney pain. Although the stones are normally painless as long as they remain in the kidney, it is when they move from the kidney when they begin to hurt. When a kidney stone starts to travel thru the ureter in order to reach the bladder, it is normally going to cause waves of very intense, sharp pain, that physicians refer to as ureteral colic or renal colic.

Call your physician for an immediate appointment if an individual experiences:

• Dull, constant, one-sided pain in the flank or back


• Body aches, fever as well as fatigue


• History or recent infection of the urinary tract

Hemorrhage or a clot of blood in the kidney can cause rapid pain in the lower flank and abdomen, as well as possibly a large amount of blood in the urine. This is a rare problem of another kidney disorders or kidney injury, including atherosclerosis of the renal artery, a bleeding condition or kidney embolism. Any time there is interruption in the transmission to the kidneys, it is considered an emergency, so it is vital to pursue emergency care if there is the development of severe pain of the kidney, without or with bloody urine.

Kidney Back Pain Treatment

If an individual has lower pain in the back, then it could be associated with the kidneys. The location of kidneys is on the margins of the spine. Usually there is softness in the area if the pain in the back is kidney pain. If there is injury outside this area nearby the kidneys can cause pain in the back near the kidney.

You're reading Kidney Back Pain – Location, Symptoms, Causes, Treatment posted by minhhai2d, the information is for reference only.

The infection of the kidney may likewise be a reason of lower pain in the back. The difficulty is problems in assessment due to the pain from the kidney as it is most of the times mis-diagnosed as back pain. It is serious due to development which is fast, but it will not last long when the kidneys stones are passed or the kidney infection is cured.

The earlier the diagnosis of pain in the back the better the relief is to the individual. To discover the precise nature of pain in back and if it is related to the kidneys, the physician prefers to do some tests. These tests are very simple but they are a necessity for treatments to be effective. Every individual’s body will react in a different way to the treatment and the pain. Therefore it is vital to consider each case of kidney pain in the back separately.

These tests consist of:

Dipstick urine test – Indicator strips are used to discover if there is protein and any blood in the urine. While there is an infection both of these are in a sample of urine. If there is a affirmative outcome of nitrate in urine then normally this indicates an infection.

Culture of Urine – Mid-stream urine is tested in the lab for presence of bacteria in the urine. The urine needs to be caught half-way thru passing urine due to it needing to be clear urine that does not contain bacteria from the skin.

X-ray or scan of bladder or the kidneys

Testing the blood

Pressure of the blood

The treatment will depend on the cause as well as the extent of the back kidney pain. When it is caused by infection of kidney stone, it will be relieved when the infection is gone. Treatment for back kidney pain can include heat therapy. This gives relief that is temporary and if the individual has pains and soreness around the kidneys, it may be quickly relieved with the aid of heat that is moist. This is the method that is safest and gives the best results.

Though numerous individuals obtain relief with this management, sometimes Chronic Pains need treatment of longer duration. Some therapies that are alternative such as acupuncture or hypnosis are used as well to help the medical therapy.