Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Urolithiasis. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Recent studies have suggested that nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) could be a predisposing factor for urolithiasis but the results have been inconsistent. This systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted with the aim to summarize all available data.

METHODS: A comprehensive literature review was conducted using MEDLINE and EMBASE databases through March 2018 to identify all studies that compared the risk of urolithiasis among patients with NAFLD versus those without NAFLD. Effect estimates from each study were extracted and combined together using the random-effect, generic inverse variance method of DerSimonian and Laird.

RESULTS: A total of eight studies with 238,400 participants fulfilled the eligibility criteria and were included in the meta-analysis. The risk of urolithiasis among patients with NAFLD was significantly higher than in those without NAFLD with a pooled odds ratio of 1.81 (95% confidence interval, 1.29-2.56; I2 92%).

CONCLUSIONS: A significantly increased risk of urolithiasis among patients with NAFLD was observed in this meta-analysis.