EDITORIAL COMMENT

Abstract

The authors present important information about the potential risk of secondary malignancy related to imaging for patients with nephrolithiasis. It is important to note that the authors found the absolute risk for any given patient to be low, but given the prevalence of nephrolithiasis, the overall risk for the population is significant. Whenever deciding on an imaging modality, the relative risks and benefits to the individual patient must be considered. For imaging ureteral stones, the American Urological Association does have a best practice paper which takes radiation exposure into consideration. 1 Fulgham PF Assimos DG Pearle MS Preminger GM Clinical effectiveness protocols for imaging in the management of ureteral calculous disease: AUA technology assessment. J Urol. 2013; 189: 1203-1213 Google Scholar These recommendations suggest using plain abdominal radiography and ultrasound when clinically appropriate to reduce radiation exposure to patients. However, the reduced sensitivity of these modalities, particularly with ureteral stones, need to be balanced with the increased radiation from computed tomography (CT) scans.