Kidney Stones

Kidney Stone Care

In 1969, in response to Chicago’s growing need for high quality kidney stone care, nephrologist Fredric Coe, MD, founded the University of Chicago Medicine’s kidney stone management program.

Nearly 50 years later, our program is one of the busiest in Chicago. Recent statistics show that one out of 11 Americans will be affected by kidney stones during his or her lifetime — a number that may continue to grow as diet and lifestyle choices impact the prevalence of kidney stone disease in the United States.

Over the last five decades, we’ve set new standards for outstanding clinical care, allowing thousands of people to return to pain-free, productive lives and remain stone-free. In addition, our scientific research has had a profound impact on how doctors around the world evaluate, treat and prevent kidney stones.

Our Approach to Care

Since its creation, UChicago Medicine’s kidney stone management program has been known for its personalized and precise approach to care. Today we are nationally recognized for numerous other reasons, as well:

• Our team not only treats problematic stones, but we also invest significant time discovering why your stones occurred in the first place so we can prevent them from returning. This involves a thorough evaluation of your medical history and crucial aspects of your day-to-day life, including your job, diet, habits (such as daily water intake) and other lifestyle choices.
• We run our own specialized laboratory to ensure that stone analysis is timely and accurate.
• In collaboration with UChicago Medicine’s urologists, we provide the full spectrum of medical and surgical treatment options. For patients who have tried conservative treatment options without success, we offer both minimally invasive and non-invasive procedures, including extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL), percutaneous nephrolithotomy and ureteroscopy.
• The vast number of people treated in our program — more than 7,000 to date — has created unparalleled research opportunities, including the opportunity to monitor individual patients for years or even decades. Over time, caring for a population this large also ensures our doctors have experience treating virtually all known types of kidney stones.
• Thanks to ongoing participation in clinical research, our physicians and scientists remain at the forefront of innovation in kidney stone diagnosis and treatment. Their work is leading to a new understanding of the causes of kidney stones and the ways that diet and medication can be tailored to decrease future stone episodes.