Few diseases present such protean symptoms and simulate such a varied array of other maladies as stone in the kidney. This is particularly true if we include in our considerations stone in the ureter.
The smallest stone may cause typical agonizing symptoms not easily mistaken even by the patient, while without attracting notice large stones may occupy both kidneys, causing insidious destruction of these organs and sudden death from anuria. In the consideration of this subject I will first discuss the diseases of the kidney which we must differentiate from calculus nephritis, and will then take up those diseases of neighboring organs which most commonly mislead us in diagnosis.
COMMON KIDNEY DISEASES TO BE DIFFERENTIATED FROM CALCULUS NEPHRITIS.
The more common kidney diseases of which we must always think in making a diagnosis of stone are tuberculosis, pyelitis, pyelonephritis and pyonephrosis from the ordinary pus-producing infections, tumor and intermittent hydronephrosis.