Imaging in the Emergency Department for Suspected Nephrolithiasis

The excruciating pain of renal colic often drives the affected patient to the emergency department. Given the increasing prevalence of nephrolithiasis,1 more patients than ever before are arriving for evaluation and treatment — nearly 1 million emergency department visits for upper-tract stone disease per year.2 In the emergency department, rapid diagnosis should facilitate the most appropriate therapy.Patients with a previous episode of colic will often make the diagnosis themselves, but those who have renal colic for the first time rarely do. Laboratory tests are nondiagnostic. The urine sediment will occasionally reveal crystals, but more commonly there will be nonspecific . . .