Paediatric urolithiasis in central coast region of Tunisia: clinical characteristics.

OBJECTIVE: To show an outline of the clinical and biological characteristics of paediatric urolithiasis among Tunisian children in the coast region. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This retrospective study included 168 children under the age of 16 years presented with urinary stones (100 boys and 68 girls). Patients were reviewed in a multi-centric study with regard to age at diagnosis, sex, history, and physical, laboratory, and radiologic findings. The physical and chemical analysis of stones was carried out respectively by a stereomicroscope and by infra-red spectroscopy. RESULTS: The sex ratio was 1.47. The clinical presentation of this pathology was dominated by abdominal pain (28%), hematuria (25.6%), dysuria (16.7%) and urinary tract infection (14.3%). Stones were located in the upper urinary tract in 75.6% of cases. Of the urine cultures, 14.3% were positive. Whewellite was more frequent in children stones than in infants (p < 0.05) and was the main component in 46.4% of stone section and 55.4% in stone surface. CONCLUSION: The male prevalence of paediatric urolithiasis is progressively decreasing in Tunisia. The epidemiological profile of renal stones in our country has changed towards a predominance of calcium oxalate stone and upper tract location.