Pattern of urolithiasis in a general hospital. A prospective study.

Judging from the abundance of papers published in the medical journals there appears to be a global increase in the incidence of urolithiasis. Urinary excretion of various stone-forming salts in a 24-hour urine specimen is the mainstay of the metabolic workup done in stone-formers. According to the findings patients have been classified into neat categories depending on whether they were hypercalciuric, hyperuricosuric, etc. As a group their excretion of calcium, oxalate, and urate was not different from the controls. However, they excreted significantly more phosphate and had lower 24-hour urine volumes than the controls.