Antibiotics can cause the formation of kidney stones
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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Scientists managed to prove experimentally that taking certain antibiotics can cause the development of kidney stone disease.
The patients of children and adolescents are more prone to this complication.
As you know, the balance of microflora in the body is severely impaired by antibiotic therapy. The assumption regarding the negative effect of dysbiosis on the formation of kidney stones has been voiced for a long time.
If you look at the statistics, you can see that renal stone disease is found in about 12% of men and 6% of women. Stones do not always lead to serious problems with the kidneys, this happens only when the calculi 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%: especially the disease is diagnosed in adolescents.
"Why the incidence has increased - it is not known exactly, but now we can already assume that the result is a chaotic or prolonged use of antibiotics," says one of the authors of the study, Michelle Denburg.
Experts looked at the health of thirteen million people living in the UK. All of them at different times addressed to doctors during the period from 1994 to 2015. Among all people, 26,000 had kidney stones. The scientists compared their anamnesis of life with anamnesis of patients from another group, consisting of 260 thousand people.
It was found that a number of medicines related to an increased risk of kidney stone disease. Among such drugs - penicillins, cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, preparations of nitrofuran and sulfonamide series. Those patients who were often treated with sulfanilamide drugs, suffered from kidney stones twice as often. If treatment was carried out with penicillins, the risk increased by 27%. At the same time, children and adolescents are more prone to the formation of stones. Risks remained elevated for several years after taking antibiotics, after which they gradually decreased.
Specialists made another important conclusion: at least 30% of all cases of antibiotic use are devoid of rationality. According to scientists, often these drugs are prescribed "just in case", without having clear evidence.
"The use of antibiotics in clinical practice is indeed a factor provoking the development of nephrolithiasis. If it were possible to reduce the frequency of prescription of such drugs, it could be possible to significantly reduce the incidence of kidney stones, "said Professor Gregory Tasian, lead author of the study.
More information can be found on the pages of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
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