Vitamin A and urolithiasis; a review.

The early observations of Osborne, Mendel, and Ferry, and later of Higgins, showed that the incidence of urolithiasis was high in rats fed on diets deficient in fat soluble vitamins. Subsequently, the results of dark adaptation studies were interpreted as showing a relationship between vitamin A deficiency and calculous disease. However, a review of the literature including more recent data discloses that there is no evidence either clinical or experimental to support the claim that vitamin A deficiency is an etiologic factor in calculous disease in man in the United States.