Recent advances in the surgical management of urinary stones in Nigeria

Abstract

 From 2017 to the present, there has been considerable interest and efforts geared toward replacing open surgical treatment of urinary calculi in the Nigerian government's public healthcare system with minimally invasive lithotripsy approaches. This article is a brief review and commentary on both the progress that has been made in the public teaching hospitals, and the epidemiology, natural history, causes, clinical features, diagnosis, and surgical options in the management of kidney, ureteral, and bladder calculi. The definition, nature, models, and role of lithotripsy were described. The latter part of the article gives a contemporaneous account of the time trends in the development of lithotripsy in public teaching hospitals. Lastly, the areas for development in the future, within the government’s public teaching hospital system were outlined.