Urolithiasis in Saudi Arabia.

In a retrospective study, 760 Saudi patients with urolithiasis were epidemiologically and metabolically studied (41% were from the Central region, 32% South, 14% West, 9% North, and 1% East; the remaining 3% were Saudi but of unknown region). The male to female ratio was 5:1; 87 percent of the patients were aged thirty to sixty years and 11 patients were under age fourteen. There was no clear relation of stone formation to occupation. Sixty-nine percent of calculi were renal, 29 percent ureteric, and only 3 percent were bladder calculi. Two hundred seventy-eight operative procedures were done (36.5% of all patients), including pyelolithotomy, nephrolithotomy, ureterolithotomy, ESWL, cystolithotomy, and extractions by basket. Infection was a rarity (6%) and urinary schistosomiasis was found in 33 patients (4.3%), 24 of whom were from a schistosoma-infested region. Raised serum calcium was found in only 5.7 percent and raised serum urate in 13 percent. Increased urinary excretion of urate was found in 60 percent and hypercalciuria in 9 percent. Seventy-six percent of stones analyzed (239) were calcium oxalate, 20.5 percent urate, and 3.3 percent phosphate.