Nephrolithiasis as a risk factor of chronic kidney disease: a meta-analysis of cohort studies with 4,770,691 participants

The objective of the study was to investigate the association between nephrolithiasis and the risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD). PubMed, Embase and ScienceDirect databases were searched for relevant cohort studies. A meta-analysis was conducted by pooling data from these studies via an inverse variance method. The Q statistic and I ² were used to measure heterogeneity. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to ascertain whether the results were stable. Nine studies with eight cohorts involving 4,770,691 participants were identified. Compared to individuals without a history of nephrolithiasis, the pooled relative risk was 1.52 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.24, 1.68; I ² = 93.7%] for all stages of CKD and 2.16 (95% CI 1.83–2.54; I ² = 0.00%) for end-stage kidney disease. Publication bias was not detected. Sensitivity analysis indicated that the results were stable. Nephrolithiasis may increase the risk of CKD, regardless of the patient population (region), and may be an important risk factor for end-stage kidney disease.