Page 236 - Urological Health

Kidney stones caused by medications

Sometimes, the medication you take form kidney stones. This means that the kidney stone is made up
of the medication that you took. See Table 1 for the most common medications that cause these kinds
of stones.

Also, sometimes medications can cause calcium kidney stones. Examples of medications that can
cause calcium kidney stones include furosemide and acetazolamide.

Table 1. Medications that form kidney stones

Generic name Trade name
Triamterene Dyrenium
Adenosine Adenocard
Silica Ludox-Ls
Indinavir Crixivan
Guaifenesin Robatussin
Ephedrine Ephedra
Ciprofloxacin Cipro

Other rare types of kidney stones

There are a few other kinds of kidney stones, but remember that these stones are not very common.
Most doctors in North America will never see patients with these kinds of stones. These stones are
called xanthine, dihydroxyadenine and ammonium acid urate stones.

Kidney stones can be made up of more than one of the different types. When a kidney stone is made
up of two or more different types, we call it a“mixed” stone. One of the most common types of a mixed
stone contains calcium and uric acid. Mixed stones form in the same way as the two parts would on
their own.

Reasons kidney stones grow

We don’t know all the reasons why people get kidney stones. The making of a kidney stone is a hard
thing to understand. There are many possible ways that a kidney stone can form in the urine. One
thing we do know is that there needs to be something called supersaturation of the urine. This means
that there is a higher than normal concentration of chemicals in the urine which causes kidney stones.
See Table 2 for a list of the things we know about how kidney stones are formed.
There are chemicals in the urine that help stones grow and there are other chemicals that stop stones
from growing. These chemicals are shown in Table 3.
There are many different kinds of kidney stones and many different ways they can form.We still have
lots to learn.

237