Why Choose Us for Pediatric Kidney Stone Care
A focus on pediatric stone disease
Kidney stones are hard, pebble-like deposits that can form inside the kidneys. They can cause a lot of pain and may lead to urinary tract infections that keep coming back (you might hear your doctor use the word "recurrent"). They were once thought to just happen in adults, but they have become more common in children and adolescents.
Our goal at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is to help children with this condition. We created the Pediatric Kidney Stone Center because kids with kidney stones need specialized care designed specifically for children. With specialized care, your child is less likely to have kidney stones come back and can return to school and childhood activities sooner.
Our Pediatric Kidney Stone Center is part of the Division of Urology and the Division of Nephrology at CHOP. It is dedicated to managing kidney stones in children.
A lot of experience
We treat many children and adolescents with kidney stones every year. Families travel from across the United States and the world each year to seek care from our team of experts.
Our experience helps us provide the best possible care for each child we see. Since 2013, more than 1,500 patients have been evaluated and treated by our Kidney 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)
Since 2010, we have performed more than 685 surgical procedures to remove kidney stones.
Using our extensive experience, our team has created ways to ensure the proper tests are done at the right time to diagnose kidney stones, including a better way to evaluate kids in our Emergency Department for possible kidney stones.
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).
Coordinated care from a complete team
Our team in the Kidney Stone Center includes many different kinds of doctors who work together to help with your child's medical and nutrition (food) needs. We have special doctors for your child's kidney and bladder problems, emergency doctors, food experts, and metabolism experts. We also have doctors who take pictures of the inside of your child's body (radiologists) and doctors who help manage pain during surgery (anesthesiologists). All of these experts work together to make life better for your child and your family.
Addressing every need
We know kidney stones can be painful for your child and upsetting for you. At CHOP's Pediatric Kidney Stone Center, our team of doctors, nurses and other professionals do all they can to help.
We work with your child's regular doctor and other specialists to make sure your child gets the best care. We also work with your school to help things go as smoothly as possible for your child.
Care for now and the future
Our goal is to provide the best care for kids with kidney stones. We use the latest treatments, like lasers and shockwave therapy, to break up the stones without surgery.
Our team includes many different kinds of doctors and specialists. First, we evaluate your child to know for sure if they have a kidney stone. Once we confirm your child has a kidney stone, we will make a special treatment plan that includes medical care, surgery and emotional support. We also factor in your child's nutrition needs.
We also focus on stopping more kidney stones from forming. To do this, we figure out what might cause more stones and make a plan to prevent them. We work with your family to find the best way to keep your child healthy.
Improving patient outcomes
We are leading research to help kids with kidney stones. We want to find the best ways to treat kidney stones and stop stones from coming back. Our team created a way to make sure the right tests are done at the right time to diagnose kidney stones, as well as a way to better evaluate kids in our Emergency Department for possible kidney stones.