Renal calculi in association with hyperparathyroidism: a changing entity

Hyperparathyroidism as a cause of renal calculous disease has decreased considerably during the last 50 years. From 1972 to 1977, 5,034 cases of calculous disease were seen in 5 major hospitals in South Carolina and only 9 patients had hyperparathyroidism as the underlying etiology. There is a 0.178 per cent incidence of hyperparathyroidism as a cause of renal calculous disease in this series, or between 1 and 2 patients per 1,000 cases of stone disease. This finding is compared to a high incidence of 8 per cent in 1934. This change probably is owing to the large-scale use of multiphasic screening blood tests.