The nutrition consult for recurrent stone formers

Diet is implicated in stone formation and growth. Whether alone or in concert with pharmacologics, dietary changes may be useful in reducing recurrence but only when they correct dietary stone-forming risks. Patients benefit from recommendations individualized to their food preferences as well as to lifestyle, age, food knowledge and access, preparation skills, and cultural and ethnic identities. Urologists can provide general dietary recommendations but often lack the time to provide the full complement of individualized nutrition care offered by a registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN). Urologists can partner with and refer patients to a RDN for any component of the nutrition care process: assessment of diet, diagnosis of dietary factors that contribute to stone risk factors, intervention formulation and implementation, and monitoring the effectiveness of the intervention and modifying it as needed to maintain suitably low dietary risk for stone recurrence.