SILICA CALCULI

Abstract

A silica stone is common in herbivorous animals such as ovine and cattle, but rare in humans. In humans, the silica stone has been encountered only in patients who had been administered orally magnesium trisilicate for many years in the treatment of gastritis and peptic ulcer.
In our clinic, only 2 silica stones were found among 1579 urinary calculi analized by infrared spectroscopy from February 1972 to September 1977.
Case 1. A 64-year-old female who had been treated for rheumatoid arthritis with betamethasone for a long period took magnesium trisilicate to prevent the peptic ulcer. She suffered from a left ureteral stone which was removed operatively.
Case 2. A 52-year-old male had been treated with magnesium trisilicate for peptic ulcer. He also suffered from urolithiasis, stone being passed out spontaneously.
This paper reported the details of the case 1 and commented briefly on the formation mechanism and the growth process of this paticular stone.