An active heating pad can decrease pain, nausea and anxiety in patients with symptoms of urinary stones.

Renal colic from kidney stones or urinary stones in the ureter or bladder can be extremely painful. Researchers at the University of Vienna, Austria, now report on a simple method than can decrease this pain.

They looked at 100 patients who had symptoms of urinary stones - also known as urolithiasis - and a history of kidney stones. All were being taken to hospital for investigation. During the journey, they were given either an active heating pad applied to the lower abdomen or a non-activated placebo pad.

Those who had the heating pad has significantly less pain, nausea and anxiety by the time they arrived at the hospital, compared to those with the placebo pad. The heart rate also decreased significantly - from 91 to 69 beats per minute in this group. The only drawback is that the heating could decrease blood pressure or increase blood loss in patients who may be bleeding within the abdominal cavity.

Source

Journal of Urology September 2003