Research directions for kidney stone disease

TL;DR

This paper discusses the global impact, causes, and challenges of kidney stone disease, emphasizing the need for improved understanding, early diagnosis, and better prevention and treatment strategies.

Contribution

It highlights current knowledge gaps and proposes future research directions to improve diagnosis, prevention, and management of kidney stone disease.

Findings

Kidney stone prevalence exceeds 10% in many developed countries.

Recurrence rates of kidney stones are high.

Understanding formation mechanisms could lead to better diagnostics and therapeutics.

Abstract

Kidney stone disease poses a major burden to patients and healthcare systems around the world. The formation of kidney stones may occur over months or years, but many patients are diagnosed at a late stage, suffer excruciating pain, and require surgical intervention to physically remove the stones. The prevalence of kidney stones has increased during recent decades to over 10% in many developed countries, suggesting a link with environmental and behavioral factors. Recurrence rates are also high. In terms of their impact and scale, kidney stones are an ongoing pandemic. The causes and mechanisms of kidney stone formation are diverse and often unknown, resulting in varied compositions and different anatomical locations being affected. A better understanding of these processes could enable earlier diagnoses through more sensitive and scalable biomarkers, as well as more effective preventives and therapeutics.