Urology Annals (Jan 2009)
Pediatric urololithiasis in coastal Tunisia
Abstract
Context: We will try to show an outline of the clinical and biological characteristics of pediatric urolithiasis among Tunisian children in the coastal region. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study included 168 children below 16 years (100 boys and 68 girls) presented with urinary stones. Patients were reviewed in a multi-centric study with regard to age at diagnosis, sexual, historical, physical, laboratory, and radiologic findings. The physical and chemical analysis of stones was carried out by a stereomicroscope and infra-red spectroscopy respectively. Statistical Analysis: Statistical analysis of data was carried out using software SPSS 11.0 for Windows. Statistical significance was determined using chi-square test. Results: The sex ratio was 1.47. Clinical presentation of this pathology was dominated by abdominal pain (28%), hematuria (25.6%), dysuria (16.7%) and urinary tract infection (14.3%). Stones were located in the upper urinary tract in 75.6% of cases. Of the urine cultures, 14.3% were positive. Whewellite is found more frequently in children stones than infants (P < 0.05) and was the main component in 46.4% of stone section and 55.4 % of stone surface. Stuvite stones were more frequent among boys stones than girls′ (11 Vs 2.9%) (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The male prevalence of pediatric urolithiasis is less obvious in Tunisia. Calcium oxalate is the most frequent chemical compound in Tunisian pediatric urolithiasis.
