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Antibiotics can cause kidney stones to form
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Scientists have managed to experimentally prove that taking some antibiotics can cause the development of kidney stones.
Children and adolescents are most susceptible to this complication.
As is known, the balance of microflora in the body is greatly disturbed by antibiotic therapy. The assumption regarding the negative impact of dysbacteriosis on the formation of kidney stones has been voiced for a long time.
If we look at the statistics, we can see that kidney stones are found in about 12% of men and 6% of women. Stones do not always lead to serious kidney problems, this only happens when the stones reach a relatively large size. Researchers note that over the past three decades in the United States, the incidence of nephrolithiasis has increased by 70%: the disease is especially often diagnosed in adolescents.
"Why the incidence has increased is not exactly known, but now we can already assume that it is due to chaotic or long-term use of antibiotics," says one of the authors of the study, Michelle Denburg.
Experts looked at health information for thirteen million people living in the UK. All of them at different times visited doctors between 1994 and 2015. Of all people, 26,000 were found to have kidney stones. The scientists compared their life histories with those of patients from another group consisting of 260 thousand people.
It was found that a number of medications are related to an increased risk of developing kidney stones. Among such drugs are penicillins, cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, nitrofuran and sulfanilamide drugs. Those patients who were frequently treated with sulfanilamide drugs suffered from kidney stones twice as often. If the treatment was carried out with penicillins, the risk increased by 27%. Moreover, children and adolescents are more susceptible to stone formation. The risks remained elevated for several years after taking antibiotics, after which they gradually decreased.
The experts also made another important conclusion: at least 30% of all cases of antibiotic use are irrational. According to the scientists, such drugs are often prescribed "just in case", without having clear indications for this.
"The use of antibiotics in clinical practice is indeed a factor that provokes the development of kidney stones. If it were possible to reduce the frequency of prescribing such drugs, then it would be possible to significantly reduce the incidence of kidney stones," Professor Gregory Tasian, the lead author of the study, is sure.
More detailed information is published in the pages of the periodical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
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