[Stone composition in the central coast Tunisian population].

Background: Studies that evaluated the effect of age and gender on the stone composition were scarce. The aim of this study was to identify the stone composition in Tunisian patients and to highlight their modification according to patients' sex and age.

Patients And Methods: We studied 1200 urolithiasic patients, from the urologic and the pediatric surgery departments, ranging from six months to 92years old and known as having urinary stones (729 males and 471 females). Stone analysis was performed respectively using a stereomicroscope and infrared spectroscopy to determine, respectively, the morphological type and the molecular composition of each.

Results: Kidney stones were encountered in 48.6% of calculi. Children and old men were more affected by bladder stone. Whewellite was the main component in 51.8% of the stones and 39.6% of the stone core, its frequency fell according to age from 61.4% in young adults to 47.7% in elderly in favor of the increase of uric acid stones, from 16.4% in young adults to 35.6% in elderly (P<0,02). Struvite stones were rare (3.2%) and more frequent in boys.

Conclusion: The analysis of these data shows that urinary stones in Tunisia were tending to evolve in the same direction as in industrialized countries.