Stone compositions in Turkey: an analysis according to gender and region

To evaluate the compositions of the kidney stones obtained from different regions of Turkey and to present the gender and regional differences.

The study included 6453 kidney stones obtained from patients from different parts of Turkey. All of the stones were obtained using ureterorenoscopy, percutaneous stone surgery, laparoscopic or open stone surgery, or extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy. X-ray diffraction crystallography method was used for analysis.

At the end of the analysis, 11 different stone types including calcium oxalate (Ca-ox) monohydrate (whewellite, COM), Ca-ox dihydrate (weddellite, COD), uric acid, cystine, struvite, biurea, xanthine brushite, quartz, whitlockite, and dahlite were determined either in pure or mixed conditions. Of the stones, 80.4% were Ca-ox (55.7% COM, 5.9% COD, 18.8% COM + COD), 4.8% uric acid, 3.1% cystine, and 3.3% were phosphate stones (dahlite, brushite, struvite, whitlockite). The remaining 8.4% of the stones were in mixed form with different combinations. Of the patients, 4411 were men (68.3%) and 2042 were women (31.7%).

Ca-ox was the most frequently encountered stone type in our country as it is worldwide. The distribution of the other stone types is different than the other countries. The information about the structure of the stone has significant contribution to the understanding of the stone formation etiology, programming of the treatment process, and prevention of the recurrences. The study is significant in presenting the stone profile of Turkey.