Introduction: Worldwide, the incidence of kidney stones has been progressively increasing. Various factors can influence the risk of stone formation, including lifestyle and eating habits. The dietary investigation is a standard of care in patients with urolithiasis. The objectives of this study were to determine the dietary habits of lithiasis patients in the city of Kinshasa and to investigate the association between dietary habits and the composition of the stones. Material and methods: From January 2017 to September 2019, 85 patients attending 8 hospitals participated in the nutrition survey. Various foods commonly consumed in the Democratic Republic of Congo were categorized based on their composition: foods rich in animal proteins, foods rich in calcium, foods high in sugar, foods high in oxalate, and various vegetables and fruits. We also investigated daily water intake. The composition of the collected stones was analyzed by infrared spectrophotometry. Results: The mean (SD) age of patients was 47.1 (14.0) years, 63.5% of patients were males, 75.3% of the patients had stones located in the upper urinary tract, and 7.1% were undernourished. Most of patients consumed vegetables (77.6%), animal proteins (62.4%), and foods rich in oxalate (58.8%). The daily water intake was less than 1500 mL in more than half of the patients (68.2%). Major anhydrous uric acid stones were associated with a high body mass index (p = 0.025). Male patients with a high oxalate diet had more calcium oxalate stones (64.3%) compared to other types of stones (p = 0.041). Conclusion: High consumptions of vegetables and low water intake were linked to the formation of cal-How to cite this paper:

Background Urolithiasis is increasingly diagnosed worldwide. Stone analysis is an important part in the assessment of patients with urolithiasis. However, in sub-Saharan Africa, data on the composition of urinary stones are limited. This study aimed to describe the composition and sites of urinary stones and to investigate relationship between socio-demographic characteristics, clinical profile of patients, and the composition of urinary stones. Methods A retrospective analysis of 132 patients with urolithiasis who visited one of the seven hospitals in the Democratic Republic of Congo during eight years of study period (January 2010 to January 2018) was conducted. Stones were analyzed by infrared spectrophotometry. Results Most of stones analyzed (n = 82, 62.1%) originated from the upper urinary tract with a difference across gender (58.5% males vs. 41.5% females, p = 0.001). Only three stones (two from whewellite and one from anhydrous uric acid) were considered pure (2.3%), excluding the protein frame (less than 5%). Whewellite, proteins, and carbapatite were identified in 97.7%, 96.2%, and 80.3% of the stones analyzed, respectively; and in 91.7%, 89.4%, and 67.7% of the nuclei of the stones analyzed, respectively. Taking into account the proportion of each constituent in the stones analyzed, whewellite (68.9%), anhydrous uric acid (10.6%), and carbapatite (8.3%) were the main constituents in respectively 68, 9%, 10.6%, and 8.3% of the stones analyzed. Conclusion Whewellite, anhydrous uric acid, and carbapatite represented the most frequent main components of stones identified, suggesting that dietary hyperoxaluria could be an important factor in lithogenesis in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

ObjectiveThis study aimed to analyze different therapeutic modalities used in the treatment of urolithiasis in the Democratic Republic of Congo.ResultsAmong the 194 patients included in this study, 69% (n=133) were males, with a male to female ratio of 2.2: 1, and an age mean (SD) of 48.1 (17.3) years. Urolithiasis was symptomatic in 52.6% (n=141) of patients. Renal colic was the most common clinical expression. Overall, 86.1% (n=167) of stones were removed by surgery, 9.8% spontaneously resolved, 3.1% were extracted after ureteroscopy, and 1% of patients had undergone extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy. Lumbotomy was the most frequent used route (39.2%) in conventional surgery. The mean (SD) size of the extracted stones was 23.4 (17.0) mm.Most patients in this study were treated by conventional surgery. These results suggest the need to increase the use of minimally invasive surgery.