Absorptive hyperoxaluria: a new clinical entity--successful treatment with hydrochlorothiazide

This report describes studies performed over an 11 year period in a 13 year old girl with hyperoxaluria and calcium oxalate nephrolithiasis who did not have primary hyperoxaluria or any of the recognized causes of secondary hyperoxaluria. The patient also had increased urinary excretion of calcium and magnesium and hyperabsorption of dietary calcium and magnesium. It is suggested that the hyperoxaluria resulted from hyperabsorption of dietary oxalate secondary to hyperabsorption of dietary calcium. Hyperabsorption of dietary magnesium and increased urinary magnesium excretion have not previously been reported in this context. Stone formation ceased and urinary oxalate excretion gradually fell to normal during long term thiazide therapy but hyperoxaluria recurred when orthophosphate therapy was substituted for the hydrochlorothiazide. This is the first report of normalization of urine oxalate excretion during thiazide therapy in a patient with frank hyperoxaluria.