Incidence and causes of urolithiasis in children between 0-2 years.

BACKGROUND: Urolithiasis (UL) is a common problem in pediatric nephrology practice. About 9-23% of all pediatric UL cases consist of patients under 1 years old. The aim of the present study was to determine etiologic causes, clinical features and short term prognosis of urolithiasis in the first two years of life.

METHODS: Two-hundred children between 0-2 years of age (mean age 10.3±6.1 months) with urolithiasis were included to the study. All children were completely evaluated for urolithiasis etiology. Patients were followed for at least 1 year with 3-month follow-up intervals.

RESULTS: The mean follow-up duration was 36.2 months. Family history was positive for urolithiasis in 99 (49.5%) patients. The cause of admission were urinary tract infection and related symptoms in 101 (50.5%), incidentally during imaging for other causes in 40 (20%), stone passage in 21 (10.5%), hematuria in 18 (9%), voiding difficulty in 14 (7%) and antenatal detected urinary anomaly in 6 (3%) patients. Accompanying urinary anomalies (anatomical defects) in 51 (25.5%) patients were detected primarily including vesiculoureteral reflux (VUR) in 32 (62.9%) of them. Development of new stones was determined in 45 (22.5%) patients in the first year, in 15 (22%) patients in the second year and in 8 (36.3%) patients in the third year.

CONCLUSIONS: In result, among pediatric urinary stone diseases, infantile UL appears to be a seperate clinical entity in terms of both the etiological characteristics and the clinical course of the disease. Furthermore, when an infant is presented with nonspecific symptoms for kidney stone, a renal ultrasonography could be performed for detecting nephrolithiasis.