Removal of Small, Asymptomatic Kidney Stones and Relapse

To the Editor: Sorensen et al. (Aug. 11 issue)(1) found that the incidence of relapse of kidney stones at 5 years was lower among patients undergoing endoscopic removal of small, asymptomatic kidney stones (in the same procedure as the removal of primary symptomatic kidney stones) than among those who did not have removal of such secondary stones. However, the authors do not address two important issues. First, they do not describe long-term complications in the two trial groups, probably because only a few patients finished 5 years of follow-up.(2) Second, we suggest that Figure 3 of their article is probably . . .

Automated summary

In a recent study, Sorensen et al. found that the incidence of relapse of kidney stones was lower among patients who underwent endoscopic removal of small, asymptomatic stones. However, the study failed to address long-term complications in the trial groups and raised questions about Figure 3.