The prevalence of urinary lithiasis in children in Van Region, Turkey.

We aimed to determine the prevalence and etiology of urinary lithiasis in childhood in our region, Van, Turkey. A total of 1120 children were included in the study. Urinary ultrasonography was performed in all the children between April 2003 and June 2003. During the study, the kidneys were examined longitudinally and transversally using a 3.75 MHz convex probe in a Hitachi EUB -315 ultrasonography machine. The children's ages ranged from 7 years to 14 years (10.16 +/- 1.92 years) and 572 (51.1%) were males and 548 (48.9%) females. Urinary ultrasonography showed that 19 (1.7%) children had urinary lithiasis, which was in the right kidney in 15 children and in the left kidney in four children. Urinary lithiasis was in the upper urinary tract in all children. The etiological studies showed metabolic disorder in 14 children, and congenital renal anomaly in one child, but no underlying cause was diagnosed in four children. In conclusion, we found that was the prevalence of urinary lithiasis was 1.7% in school-aged children in our region. It was also noted that all urinary lithiasis was in the upper urinary system and its most common cause was metabolic disorder.