Is Your Lower Back Pain Kidney Related?

Kidney back pain is usually felt where the kidneys are located, which is just above the arches of your pelvis on either side of the lower back. It  can also be felt in the front of the groin and hip area as shown in this diagram below (this is called referred pain and is where pain is felt a distance away from the cause).

This can be confusing as normal non-specific low back pain can also cause pain in the same areas. But there are usually clear differences between normal back pain and kidney pain.  If I am assessing someone it is usually a combination of symptoms that would make me suspect kidney not lower back problems .

 The most common kidney problems include infection and stones

Symptoms of an infection include:

• Lower back pain, either one or both sides which may radiate into the groin.
• Feeling unwell, possibly sick and maybe vomiting.
• Fevers and high temperatures
• Urine may be cloudy and may smell different to usual
• There may be blood in the urine
• You may need to go to the toilet more often than usual.

Bear in mind that you may not have all of these symptoms.

Kidney stones may be painless if they are small, if they are larger they can get wedged in the renal pelvis or ureter as the body tries to pass them, this may cause extreme pain. In addition stones can cause an infection leading to the same symptoms shown above.

Lower back pain tends to behave differently:

• the pain is often more localised
• it may have occurred suddenly
• it may be improved or worsened by certain movements and positions
• It does not cause a fever or generalised illness
• Often, if you have back pain, taking pain relief can make you feel a bit different to normal, even a bit sick, but it's important not to confuse this with kidney problems

Severe lower back pain problems such as cauda equina can affect your bladder and bowels, but again these symptoms are very different to the symptoms described above

Reference: /www.lower-back-pain-toolkit.com/back-pain-kidney.html