The incidence and clinical features of acute kidney injury secondary to ureteral calculi

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate the incidence and clinical features of acute kidney injury (AKI) secondary to ureteral calculi. Between February 2002 and December 2009, the prevalence of AKI was 0.72% in our series of 2,073 cases of ureteral stones. The AKI patients received ureteroscopy or percutaneous nephrostomy as the primary treatment. The most popular symptom was significant decrease in urine output (75%, 12/16). Five cases (33.3%) were caused by bilateral ureteral stones, and 76.19% of the stones were located in the upper ureter, the mean size of single stone was 1.35 ± 0.38 cm. The serum creatinine before treatment was 514.34 ± 267.04 μmol/L and the blood urea nitrogen before treatment was 21.31 ± 10.24 mmol/L. 46.67% of the patients had a functional or anatomical solitary kidney unit. Our study suggests that risk factors for developing AKI in ureteral stone patients are bigger sized stones, ureteral stones in patients with only one functioning kidney or pre-existing kidney disease, and bilateral ureteral stones. Early effective drainage in these cases could decrease the risk developing AKI secondary to ureteral calculi.