[Treatment of lithiasis in horse-shoe kidney]

Between september 1985 and april 1987 the authors treated 16 patients with 27 calculi in horse-shoe kidneys. 14 patients were treated by extra-corporeal lithotrity with two failures from the outset because of impossibility of positioning the lithiasis at the second site of the ellipsoid. In the other twelve cases and 3 months after treatment there were four complete successes (no residual calculi) and eight partial successes with, in seven cases, residual calculi less than 4 mm in diameter and, in one case, a residual calculus of more than 10 mm. Of 4 percutaneous nephrolithotomies, including two from the outset, there were no post-operative complications and, only in one case, residual fragments in the inferior calyx. The authors then analyzed the special features and difficulties inherent to the unusual topography of the renal cavities of horse-shoe kidneys. Such topography leads to modifications which are described by the authors both in the technique of extra-corporeal lithotrity as well as in that of percutaneous nephrolithotomy. The study ends with an analysis of the respective indications of the two methods of extra-corporeal or endo-urological treatment of lithiasis affecting horse-shoe kidneys.