Urolithiasis and Its Risk Factors: A Review

Urolithiasis, with different types of stones, is known as a considerable concern regarding urinary tract. Indeed, urolithiasis is a multifactorial disease with a wide range of risk factors which predisposes patients to it. Because of the importance of urolithiasis around the world and the considerable costs for patients and public health and treatment centers associated with urolithiasis, we made an attempt to determine the most important risk factors in association with urolithiasis.

To prepare  the present systematic review, the English language papers with no limitation in publication date were searched in search engines like Google Scholar and databases, including PubMed, and websites, like ScienceDirect. In this regard, papers which covered the main aim of the study were selected for final analysis.

The prevalence, type, and composition of urinary system stones have different reasons and risk factors. The urinary tract stones are divided into microbial and non-microbial stones. Although urolithiasis is a multifactorial disease, nutrition, as the dominant risk factor, plays pivotal role in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of urolithiasis.

Men >60, <40, and 40-60 years old are more predisposed to urinary tract stones (both the microbial and non-microbial stones) compared with other age ranges. In contrast, the occurrence of microbial stones in women is higher than that of men because the rates of urinary tract infections are higher in female population. All in all, age, gender, catheterization, urinary tract disorders, geographic zone, climate, season, race, diet, physical activities, drug-induced stones, water and liquid application, gastrointestinal and urinary tracts’ normal flora, inheritance, occupation, and diseases such as gout and diabetes type II are identified as the most important factors of urolithiasis.