Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

How the lack of consensus among stone researchers influences current guidelines

Technology for the treatment of stone disease has rapidly advanced, but a common nomenclature to communicate research and high-quality studies to assess treatment outcomes are lacking. Thus, guidelines are based on low-grade evidence and cannot make definitive recommendations in many scenarios. To improve clinical practice and patient outcomes, the endourology community must unite to address these inadequacies.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Purchase on Springer Link

Instant access to full article PDF

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Scales, C. D. et al. Practice variation in the surgical management of urinary lithiasis. J. Urol. 186, 146–150 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Zumstein, V. et al. Surgical management of urolithiasis - a systematic analysis of available guidelines. BMC Urol. 18, 25 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Pearle, M. S. et al. Medical management of kidney stones: AUA guideline. J. Urol. 192, 316–324 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. American Urological Association. Kidney stones: medical mangement guideline. AUA https://www.auanet.org/guidelines/kidney-stones-medical-mangement-guideline (2019).

  5. Assimos, D. et al. Surgical management of stones: American Urological Association/Endourological Society guideline, part I. J. Urol. 196, 1153–1160 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Assimos, D. et al. Surgical management of stones: American Urological Association/Endourological Society guideline, part II. J. Urol. 196, 1161–1169 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Takazawa, R., Kitayama, S. & Tsujii, T. Single-session ureteroscopy with holmium laser lithotripsy for multiple stones. Int. J. Urol. 19, 1118–1121 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Opondo, D. et al. Standardization of patient outcomes reporting in percutaneous nephrolithotomy. J. Endourol. 28, 767–774 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amy Elizabeth Krambeck.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

A.E.K. is a consultant for Boston Scientific and Lumenis, the data safety monitoring chair for SonoMotion, and a panel member of the American Urological Association (AUA) guidelines for the surgical management of stone disease and the revision of the AUA guidelines for the metabolic management of stone disease. C.U.N. declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Nottingham, C.U., Krambeck, A.E. How the lack of consensus among stone researchers influences current guidelines. Nat Rev Urol 17, 483–484 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41585-020-0317-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41585-020-0317-9

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing