Urinary stone disease in Syrian children

Pediatric urinary stone disease (USD) is a costly medical problem. This study aims to assess the clinical characteristics and outcomes of common and rare causes of pediatric USD.

A retrospective descriptive cohort study included all children < 13 years of age with confirmed USD admitted to the Children's University Hospital in Damascus, Syria, from January 2013 to December 2019. The study sample was divided into two groups based on etiologies: common and rare causes groups.

We evaluated 235 patients; 147 of them were males, and the male-to-female ratio was 1.7:1. The common causes group consisted of 203 patients (mean age 3.52 ± 3.66 years) and mainly included metabolic disorders (45.5%) and anatomical abnormalities (22.3%), while the rare causes group included 32 cases (mean age 4.93 ± 4.08 years), 12 patients with uric acid stones (37.5%), 7 patients with cystinuria (21.9%), and primary hyperoxaluria in 5 patients (15.6%). In addition, 39.6% of study patients were born to consanguineous marriages. Sixty-two patients developed AKI, and eleven patients had chronic kidney disease (CKD). Patients with rare causes were more likely to have AKI, CKD, bilateral stones, and recurrent stones (P-value < 0.05). Stone analysis was performed on 83 patients, and the main stone types were calcium oxalate (34.9%), uric acid (14.4%), and struvite stones (12%). Surgery was the most performed treatment in 101 patients (56.7%).

Patients with rare causes of pediatric USD are at a higher risk for severe complications and require early diagnosis and management. The high rate of uric acid stones in our society requires further evaluation for possible underlying causes. A higher resolution version of the Graphical abstract is available as Supplementary information.