Upper urinary tract stones in Accra, Ghana

Fifty-one patients with newly diagnosed upper urinary tract stones were seen at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra over an 8 years period from September 1985 to August 1993. Their mean age was 40.1 years (range 20-61 years). The sex ratio was 36 males to 15 males. During the same period 3, 217, 135 patients (both adults and children) attended the hospital's clinics. Thus putting the incidence of upper urinary tract stone at 2 per 100,000. On presentation 37 patients had solitary stones, 11 had multiple stone and 3 had partial or complete staghorn calculi. A total of 71 stones were seen; 30 were renal and 35 ureteric. The etiology of the stone disease was established in only 10 cases (20%). Urinary stasis was a predisposing factors in 5 patients, urinary infection in 3 others and hyperuricaemia and uricosuria in another 2. Stones from 29 patients that were removed at surgery or passed spontaneously were analysed chemically. Of these 25 (86%) consisted of calcium oxalate and/or calcium phosphate, 3 (10%) consisted of magnesium ammonium phosphate and 1(4%) contained only uric acid.