Kidney Stones: Medical and Surgical Management

Abstract

<i>Kidney Stones</i>is an elegant book of over 1100 pages about an ancient disease, which was already known to Hippocrates. Montaigne thought stone disease was "a noble and dignified malady [that] attacked the great for preference." Samuel Pepys suffered from recurrent urinary calculi, and so may have Sir Walter Scott when he gloomily predicted that his making blood might soon lead to making earth. Also afflicted was Napoleon III, dying of uremia just over a century ago. Today we know much more about this disease that affects 12% to 20% of American men and, 5% to 10% of women during their lifetimes. Most of this knowledge is well covered in this book's 51 readable chapters, authoritatively written and well illustrated. "... considering the physical characteristics of urine, it is surprising that kidney stones do not occur more often." Obviously few clinicians require such a large book to competently manage kidney stones.