Kidney stones (patient fact sheet)

Please note that this guidance is currently undergoing review by Safer Care Victoria to ensure  the content is up to date. In the meantime, we recommend that you also refer to more contemporaneous evidence where possible.

Download our fact sheet to provide your patients with easy to follow guidance on kidney stones.

This fact sheet has the #withconsumers tick from the Consumers Health Forum of Australia

Kidney stones (or ‘renal calculi’) are small, hard stones that form in the kidney and urinary tract when salts in the urine become solid. They can vary in size and location.

Most stones are small and are flushed out in the urine. Some grow over years to become quite large. Stones can lodge anywhere in the urinary tract and cause severe pain or block urine flow. 

Anyone can get a kidney stone. One in 10 men and one in 35 women develop a kidney stone in their lifetime. Most occur between the ages of 20 and 60.