Objective: To explore the composition of bilateral urinary tract calculi so as to guide treatments.
Methods: A total of 126 patients with bilateral urinary calculi were recruited to undergo percutaneous nephrolithotomy or ureteroscopes lithotripsy. And 256 extracted stones were analyzed by infrared spectrophotometry.
Results: The components of these stones were mainly mixture. The compositions included calcium oxalate (n = 214, 85%), carbonate apatite (n = 113, 45%), phosphate (n = 43, 17%) and uric acid (n = 28, 11%). And 63 patients had the same stone composition in bilateral urinary stones and 26 of them were of pure calcium oxalate, 2 phosphate while another 36 mixture. Different compositions were present in 60 patients with bilateral urinary stones.
Conclusion: The compositions of bilateral urinary stones are not always identical in a patient. The overall patient status should be considered if one side urinary stone is treated according to the composition analysis results of another side counterpart.