[Looking back on 50 years of stone treatment]

Urolithiasis is an urologist's daily business. This article provides an overview of the developments in the management of urinary stone disease since the 1970s. While conventional KUB X-rays and intravenous pyelography were standard imaging procedures in the past, computed tomography is the first choice today. Conservative treatments such as medical expulsive therapy were established to facilitate ureteral stone passage, but have come into discussion in the past few years. Fifty years ago, open stone surgery was the standard procedure to access renal stones. This has been superseded by minimally-invasive procedures ranging from percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) to extracorporeal shock-wave lithotripsy (ESWL) and ureteroscopy (URS), which is today's standard for most upper urinary tract stones. It would have been desirable if such enormous efforts and progress had been made in the evaluation of stone pathogenesis and the improvement of preventative measures. Unfortunately, the knowledge on stone formation has hardly improved compared to 1970.