Mutomba Wilbert F, Symeonidis Evangelos N, Mykoniatis Ioannis, Tzelves Lazaros, Tsaturyan Arman, Juliebo-Jones Patrick, Tokas Theodoros, Sountoulides Petros
First Department of Urology, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 541 24 Thessaloniki, Greece.
Second Department of Urology, Interbalkan Medical Center, 555 35 Thessaloniki, Greece.
J Clin Med. 2025 Apr 22;14(9):2885. doi: 10.3390/jcm14092885.
Urolithiasis is one of the most burdensome urinary tract conditions with a prevalence ranging from 1% to 20%. Approximately half of the patients experience a recurrence, while 10% face multiple stone episodes. Long before the advent of surgical treatment options, herbal therapy, or phytotherapy, had been used for both the prevention and management of urolithiasis. Recently, interest in phytotherapy has been rekindled due to the limitations associated with modern urolithiasis treatment, the limited options for conventional medical therapy, and the added cost of interventions for stones. While research on phytotherapy is still limited, it is ongoing and is yielding promising results. In order to capture the current trend in phytotherapy for urolithiasis, we performed a narrative review from data collected and synthesized from electronic databases, with a specific focus on randomized human studies. Our analysis revealed that the use of various herbal medicines and phytotherapy, either as mixtures or as sole plant extracts, in urolithiasis is on the rise and is mainly utilized as complementary therapy to conventional treatment. Although most studies demonstrate the effectiveness of phytotherapy in reducing stone size and facilitating stone expulsion, several questions regarding specific dosages, mechanisms of action, drug interactions, treatment duration, and types of stones that respond to phytotherapy remain unanswered. This review aims to summarize the current knowledge surrounding the role of phytotherapy in urolithiasis and to determine its role as a primary or complementary treatment alongside traditional treatment options. Ultimately, further research is essential to clarify the abovementioned unresolved issues, overcome the existing challenges, and optimize the best possible phytotherapy strategies and timing for dissolving specific types of stones with these regimens.
尿石症是最具负担的泌尿系统疾病之一，患病率在1%至20%之间。大约一半的患者会复发，而10%的患者会面临多次结石发作。早在手术治疗方案、草药疗法或植物疗法出现之前，它们就已被用于尿石症的预防和管理。最近，由于现代尿石症治疗存在局限性、传统医学治疗选择有限以及结石干预成本增加，人们对植物疗法的兴趣再次被点燃。虽然关于植物疗法的研究仍然有限，但仍在进行且取得了有希望的结果。为了把握当前尿石症植物疗法的趋势，我们对从电子数据库收集和综合的数据进行了叙述性综述，特别关注随机人体研究。我们的分析表明，在尿石症中使用各种草药和植物疗法，无论是作为混合物还是单一植物提取物，都在增加，并且主要用作传统治疗的辅助疗法。尽管大多数研究证明了植物疗法在减小结石大小和促进结石排出方面的有效性，但关于具体剂量、作用机制、药物相互作用、治疗持续时间以及对植物疗法有反应的结石类型等几个问题仍未得到解答。本综述旨在总结当前关于植物疗法在尿石症中作用的知识，并确定其作为主要治疗或与传统治疗方案一起作为辅助治疗的作用。最终，进一步的研究对于澄清上述未解决的问题、克服现有挑战以及优化最佳的植物疗法策略和使用这些方案溶解特定类型结石的时机至关重要。
