In the era of laparoscopic surgery, the best approach for common bile duct (CBD) stones remains a matter of debate. When CBD exploration was performed by laparotomy, prospective randomized trials did not show the superiority of preoperative endoscopic sphincterotomy (ES) over CBD surgery for stones.1,2 The advent of laparoscopic surgery led to a dramatic change in the approach of CBD stones tre...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE With the development of ultrashort echo time (UTE) sequences, it may now be possible to detect kidney stones by using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In this study, kidney stones of varying composition and sizes were imaged using both UTE MRI as well as the reference standard of computed tomography (CT), with different surrounding materials and scan setups. METHODS On...

To identify factors involved in choledocholithiasis, clinical characteristics were studied using univariate and multivariate analyses. Factors involved in recurrence were also investigated. The subjects consisted of 51 patients with calcium bilirubinate stones (B group) and 52 patients with cholesterol stones (C group). All patients had choledocholithiasis and underwent lithotripsy by endoscopi...

BACKGROUND The authors measured urine and blood stone risk factors in African-American (AA) haemodialysis (HD) patients with new onset of stones during dialysis. METHODS Patients with nephrolithiasis (NL) newly manifested during dialysis were matched by age, sex and urine output and dialysis duration to AA HD patients without history or symptoms of stones. Two 24 h urine and serum samples wer...

Renal stone disease is characterized by the differences depending on the age, gender, and the geographic location of the patients. Seventy-five percent of the renal stone components is the calcium (Ca). The most common type of the stones is the Ca oxalate stones, while Ca phosphate, uric acid, struvite, and sistine stones are more rarely reported. Other than these types, triamterene, adenosine,...

OBJECTIVE Since 1980s, the clinical and biological characteristics of urolithiasis in Tunisian children have continuously evolved. This retrospective study defines the current status of urolithiasis among children and adolescents in Tunisia. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed the records of 310 children and adolescents (age: 3 months - 19 years) between 2003 and 2010, holding urolithiasis. A...

Pigment gallstones, which are much less frequent than cholesterol stones, are classified descriptively as "black" or "brown". They are composed mostly of calcium hydrogen bilirubinate, Ca(HUCB)(2), which is polymerized and oxidized in "black" stones but remains unpolymerized in "brown" stones. Black stones form in sterile gallbladder bile but brown stones form secondary to stasis and anaerobic ...

Accepted guidelines for preoperative endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) in gallstone pancreatitis are lacking. Our previous investigations suggested that serum total bilirubin on hospital Day 2 best predicts persisting common bile duct (CBD) stones. We aim to identify an optimal total bilirubin threshold on hospital Day 2 that would predict persisting CBD stones and guide obt...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic potential of magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) in preoperative patients with secondary common bile duct stones during the application of laparoscopic trans-cystic common bile duct exploration (LTCBDE). MATERIAL AND METHODS The clinical records of 255 patients were retrospectively analyzed. All patients included i...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of pulp stones (PS) in a Turkish dental patient population with respect to sexes and dental localization in relation between sex and this anomaly. MATERIALS METHODS A retrospective study was performed using bitewing radiographs of 814 patients ranging in age from 15 to 65. All data (age, sex, and location) was obtained from the f...