Giant cystine stone in an infant bladder with no evidence of cystinuria--valence of possible pathomechanisms.

Bladder calculi account for approximately 5% of all urinary calculi. Children are at high risk in endemic areas whereas otherwise the entity is rare. Diet, voiding dysfunction and uncorrected anatomical abnormalities predispose to bladder stone formation. We report the case of a 2-year-old girl with a giant cystine bladder stone without relevant cystinuria and a small left kidney. Suprapubic cystolithotomy was performed for stone removal. We discuss possible associations of cystine calculi with unilateral genitourinary pathologies in the absence of persistent excess cystinuria. Copyright (c) 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel.