The general practitioner and nephrolithiasis

Nephrolithiasis is a multifactorial disease the genesis of which is influenced by genetic, metabolic and environmental factors which determine a series of alterations in the urinary excretion of a number of substances, the cause of the disease itself. The general practitioner is often the first professional to be consulted as regards clinical and therapeutic treatment at the moment of the onset of nephrolithiasis, renal colic, inasmuch as contacted directly by the patient. His role however should not be limited to this initial phase but becomes of strategic importance throughout the subsequent diagnostic procedure; this is especially true with regard to relapses, in correctly placing the patient and, if necessary, referring him/her to the most appropriate specialist area. Running through the entire process which the lithiasic patient encounters from the onset of the disease until therapeutic treatment begins, it is clear how an appropriate initial approach can, in many cases, simplify and optimise such process. On the basis therefore of a complete medical record, and a few simple, biochemical and instrumental tests, the general practitioner is in a position to decide whether to treat the patient directly or to refer him/her to the most appropriate specialist field for investigation at a higher level. Over the last decades nephrolithiasis has progressively changed from being a disease of mainly surgical pertinence to being one of multidisciplinary medical interest in which the figure of the General Practitioner has a primary role, both during the initial diagnostic phase, by means of the correct physio-pathological identification of the problem, and in the subsequent phases as regards the choice and co-ordination of the various specialists involve