Chronic urine acidification by fludrocortisone to treat infectious kidney stones.

Chronic urinary tract infections by urease-producing bacteria may increase urine pH and promote thereby the formation of recurrent kidney stones made of highly carbonated calcium phosphate apatite and struvite, a magnesium ammonium phosphate. To date, there is no safe and effective treatment decreasing urine pH on a long term. We hypothesized that fludrocortisone, amineralocorticoid, would decrease urine pH by increasing proton secretion in the kidney collecting tubule. We report three cases of patients with kidney stone suffering from chronic urinary infection by ureaseproducing germs, treated by fludrocortisone on a long term. Urine pH decreased sustainably over severalmonths and tolerance was good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]