Treatment of bilateral urolithiasis

Patients with bilateral urolithiasis diagnosed at their first visit were followed for at least one year after the start of treatment. In this retrospective study of 123 patients, the basic metabolic workup revealed no specific underlying cause of simultaneously occurring bilateral nephrolithiasis, and none of the currently used therapeutic regimes proved to be efficient in attaining clinically acceptable stone-free rates at the 3, 6 and 12-month follow-ups. Of 38 patients treated with extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy (SWL), 21 underwent treatment of both kidneys and 10 (48%) were free of stones bilaterally after 12 months. All of the 17 patients treated with unilateral SWL failed to achieve a stone-free state on the contralateral side. In another group, treated with medication alone to minimize risks of stone recurrence, only 3 of 26 (11.5%) patients were stone-free on both sides 12 months after the start of medication. Since we achieved a stone-free state of both kidneys in no more than 12% of the non-medicated cases, it seems warranted to treat bilateral urolithiasis with SWL more frequently, particularly when patients cannot return regularly to the stone clinic for a longterm follow-up.