In this article, we aim to review the data regarding associations between obesity and nephrolithiasis to assist with workup and treatment of these intersecting disorders. As obesity has a multifactorial influence on the risk for urinary stone disease, the complicated mechanisms will be discussed to improve diagnosis and management.
Obesity and metabolic syndrome interact with nephrolithiasis risk factors to produce a myriad of bodily responses that induce stone formation. For this reason, many societies recommend prompt metabolic workup to evaluate the precise causes of stone formation. Data have shown that dietary and directed medical therapies can produce an excellent therapeutic response in this patient population, although the response may be blunted compared with nonobese patients.
Given the increasing number of obese and overweight patients, the urologist should be familiar with the pathophysiology, workup, and treatment of metabolic stone disease in this population, which are outlined here.
Current opinion in urology. 2017 Jun 24 [Epub ahead of print]
Daniel A Wollin, Andreas Skolarikos, Glenn M Preminger
aDivision of Urologic Surgery, Duke Comprehensive Kidney Stone Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA bDepartment of Urology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.