[Alkalinizing treatment as a preventative of recurrent calcium oxalate lithiasis]

Alkalinization of urine does not dissolve calcium oxalate but simply inhibits its formation, thus reducing to a high degree the risk of crystallization, precipitation and secondary aggregation. Slight alkalinization is the most effective inhibitor of many recurrent oxalate stones. The solubility of calcium oxalate is always very low and constitutes a different issue of precipitability of oxalate radical as calcium salt which can be satisfactorily influenced by slightly alkalinizing urine. We discuss the reported results of in vitro studies, experiments in animals submitted to oxalate and ethylene glycol overload and the clinical results achieved by alkalinizing treatment of recurrent calcium oxalate stones.