Kidney Stone Volumes and Outcomes

Our experience caring for children and adolescents with kidney stones

We treat a high volume of children and adolescents with kidney stones each year, experience that helps us provide the best possible care. Since 2013, more than 1,500 patients have been evaluated and treated by the Stone Center.

Stone Center Patient Visits

This chart shows the volume of pediatric kidney stone office visits completed at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Division of Urology over the past five years (2018 through 2022).

 
Calendar Year

Surgical volumes

When faced with the prospect of your child's surgery, you want experienced surgeons. You want to know that your child is receiving the best and most compassionate care, and that the healthcare providers are working as a team. At Children’s Hospital, you’ll find world-class pediatric urological surgeons, specialized pediatric anesthesiologists, and dedicated surgical advanced practice nurses with expertise in meeting children’s unique surgical needs.

Since 2013, we have performed more than 850 surgical procedures to remove kidney stones. This experience means that our entire team is extremely familiar with these procedures. We are prepared to deliver the coordinated, personalized care your child needs before, during and after surgery. The graph below shows a snapshot of the volume of procedures we’ve performed over the past five years.

Kidney Stone Procedures

This chart shows the volume of pediatric kidney stone procedures performed at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Division of Urology over the past five years (2018 through 2022).

 
Calendar Year

Improving outcomes

Our core mission is to improve outcomes for children diagnosed with kidney stones and prevent stone recurrence. When a child is making fewer trips to the emergency room and is less likely to require surgery, we know we are making a difference for that child and better managing their kidney stone disease.

Since the Kidney Stone Center was established in 2008, we’ve seen encouraging improvements in key outcome measures that indicate our comprehensive, multidisciplinary model of care is having an impact:

Change in Emergency Department (ED) visits:

  • 27 percent reduction among all patients
  • 50 percent reduction among high-risk or recurrent stone formers

Change in need for surgery:

  • 14 percent reduction among all patients
  • 32 percent reduction among high-risk or recurrent stone formers

(Data based on patient visits and procedures from 2008 – 2018 at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.)

There are several key factors we believe are driving these improvements: Comprehensive evaluations with both nephrology and urology and standardized testing and procedures are leading to more individualized treatment plans. On top of that, better patient family education and proper follow-up empower families to better manage their child’s disease and prevent recurring problems.

Despite these gains, we recognize that the problem is still unsolved. We are seeing an increased volume of patients in our clinic and performing more surgeries overall, so we remain committed to our goal of better understanding stone disease so we can prevent it. 


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Why Choose Us

Learn about what sets us apart in treating kids with kidney stones, and how we can help manage your child’s care and prevent stone recurrence.

Kidney Stones in Children - CHOP's Pediatric Stone Center

Watch: Treating Kidney Stones in Children

Learn about the rising incidence of kidney stones in children and how stones are diagnosed and treated at CHOP's Pediatric Kidney Stone Center.