Kidney stones is a widespread disease in industrialized countries, including Italy, especially among adult men, who are affected about twice as often as women.
Kidney stones are solid structures of varying size that can form in the kidneys, ureters or bladder and can obstruct urine outflow and/or promote the development of inflammation and infection in these organs.
Kidney stones can consist of mineral salts or other substances that, due to a specific disease, an individual genetic predisposition, or lifestyle errors, reach particularly high concentrations in the urinary tract and “precipitate,” aggregating as crystals.
The stones found most frequently in the general population are calcium oxalate stones (90 percent of cases), while calcium phosphate stones and uric acid stones are less frequent and those formed by cystine are very rare.
