Pharmacologic treatment of infection stones.

Hippocrates first wrote of the association of urinary tract infection with urinary calculi. Modern research has established the causal relationship between "infection stones" and the presence of urinary infection with urease-producing organisms. Treatment and preventive measures can be based on antimicrobial activity and urease inhibition as well as the eradication of the calculi. The development of endourologic and, particularly, extracorporeal shock-wave lithotripsy techniques for removing stones may expand the importance of the pharmacologic control of recurrence and stone growth.