Kidney Infection Or Lower Back Pain? How To Distinguish Between The Two
Back pain is a part of our lives and can affect anyone at
any point in time. Back pain may occur periodically, remain for a short time, and
then quickly disappear. This is known as acute back pain and can be taken care
of with medication and rest. The pain would be deemed chronic back pain when it
remains for over three months. Many people are on constant medication for back pain.
However, if you are experiencing back pains near the kidney area, it's time to
pay a visit to the doctor. Kidney infection may cause pain, which is similar to
lower back pain. The kidneys are located on either side of the spinal column
just above the hip. That is why any kind of a pain in that area may be
diagnosed as kidney infection. The pain originates in the kidney and radiates
to the lower back. This is known as referred pain. Therefore, very often kidney
infection is confused with lower back pain.
So how does one distinguish between pain caused by the
kidney infection and lower back pain? One symptom is that pain due to kidney
infection comes on rapidly and disappears once the course of medication is
over. With back pain, the pain continues even after the infection has cleared
up. The symptoms of kidney infection or kidney stone could be pain during
urination, blood in the urine or fever with accompanying chills. If the doctor
Kidney Infection or Lower Back Pain? How To Distinguish between the Two presses
on the kidneys at the time of physical examination, there will be shooting pain
in the area. If, on the other hand, you have a stretched, torn or twisted
muscle, the pain will be specific to the area. The pain may occur either in the
lower back or between shoulder blades, below the waist or over the spinal
column. This type of pain will get worse with movement and ease away while
resting. Kidney infection can be safely ruled out in this scenario. If you
happen to suffer from a kidney infection, the pain will occur on one side of
the back, above the waist but just below the rib cage. The pain may increase as
the bladder gets full or it may travel to the genital area. During the time you
may have bouts of vomiting, pain while urination, blood in the urine and even fever.
Lower back pain could be another symptom of kidney infection. These are general
guidelines, which give an idea how to diagnose the pain in the lower back area.
If you still are not sure what you are dealing with, any such symptoms call for
an urgent visit to the doctor. It is always better to be safe than sorry. If
there is an earlier history of kidney infections, then there may be another
attack coming on. On the other hand, it may just be a stretched back muscle.
Therefore, it is better to visit the doctor so that he can make the proper
diagnosis and begin treatment for the pain or kidney infection as the case may
be. The kidney infection and resultant back pain will probably clear up with a
dose of antibiotics. Lower back pain treatment may call for physiotherapy or
medication in the form of pain relievers.
