A study from researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center, published in The Journal of Urology, found that patients who underwent gastric bypass procedures were more likely to develop kidney stones after the procedure than patients who did not due to changes in urine composition, according to a report in ScienceDaily.
The researchers studied 38 patients (two groups of 16 women and three men) who underwent Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery. According to the report, they found RYGB patients were more likely to have oxalate in their urine, a substance found in the majority of kidney stones, than patients who did not (47 percent versus 10.5 percent).
More RYGB patients (32 percent) also had low urine citrate, which inhibits stone formation, compared with nonsurgical patients (5 percent), according to the report.
Researchers noted the findings should encourage physicians to alert their patients to this heighted risk of kidney stones.
Read the ScienceDaily report about kidney stones after gastric bypass.