Stone Analysis & 24 hour Urine test:- Patients of Kidney Stones are always interested in getting their stone analyzed & majority of them do get their stone analyzed. But they are not interested in 24 hour urine test because of cumbersome procedure of collecting 24 hour urine. Simple stone analysis usually does not give us clear picture except in case of pure uric acid & Cystine Kidney stones
To have a good protocol for prevention of majority of Kidney Stones, we must have 24 hour urine test which patients invariably fail to get.
The diagnosis of pure uric acid stones can be made by Stone analysis alone & is always helpful because this is one type of stone which can be easily prevented from reformation & also responds to medical therapy to some extent.
Cystine Stones which account for 1 % of Kidney Stones can also be easily diagnosed by Stone analysis & is a hereditary disease but it is very difficult to prevent recurrence of Cystine Stones. I still remember one such patient who came to us from Iran after having 5 PCNL procedures on her Kidney & 6th operation which I did on her was RIRS several years back. This patient later relocated to Canada where I heard that she underwent two more PCNL procedures.
As for as Calcium Kidney Stones are concerned , one needs to get 24 hour urine test to analyze hyperuricosuria, hypercalciuria, hyperoxaluria, hypocitraturia & hypomagnesuria. Only after analysis of these conditions, Kidney Stone Doctor can plan preventive measures for a particular type of Kidney Stone
In addition, people in general & Kidney Stone patients should stay away from:-
Non-vegetarian diet as it contains high animal protein which leads to higher concentration of calcium, oxalate & uric acid in the urine which in turn has higher chances of Kidney Stone formation
Spinach, nuts & chocolate which are rich in oxalates which is again a factor for formation of Kidney Stones.
Sedentary work which is known to be associated with higher incidence of Kidney stone formation.
Obesity is known to associated with higher incidence of Kidney Stone formation.
Patients who form kidney stones because of some disease like hyperparathyroidism should undergo Parathyroidectomy to prevent Kidney Stones.
