Treatment of lithiasis in the patient with a solitary kidney.

ABSTRACT

Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) has been the fundamental treatment applied to 88 patients with renal calculi in a solitary kidney. Epidemiological information is given, including lithiasis antecedents and associated pathologies as well as the etiology of the solitary kidney, location and size of stones. The initial treatment was ESWL in 83 patients, ureteroscopy in 2, surgery in 2, and percutaneous nephrolithotomy in 1. Three months after treatment in the ESWL group, 68 patients were completely free of stones and 15 had insignificant caliceal residual fragments. The rest of the patients were treated successfully using the above methods. The secondary complications of ESWL were colic pain (20 cases), fever (13 cases) and obstruction (9 cases).