L.H. Smith – författare

The first International Symposium on Urolithiasis Research was held in Leeds, England, in 1968. The meeting was the first in what was to become a series of symposia intended to gather together a diverse group of biochemists and physicians, urologists and engineers, with a common interest in factors affecting the formation of human urinary stones. Since its inception the series has threaded a peripatetic course back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean, from Madrid in Spain, to Davos in Switzerland, to Williamsburg in the USA, to Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany and Vancouver in Canada, under the guardianship of Drs Nordin, Cifuentes Delatte, Fleisch, Smith, Schwille, Dirks and Sutton, and their colleagues. In 1992, for the first time, the meeting moved to the southern hemisphere, to Cairns in Northeastern Australia. Unlike most previous symposia, there were no invited papers. Instead, the submitted abstracts were allowed to dictate the content of the meeting so that the conference programme would reflect the flavour of current research in the field. To achieve this, all abstracts were graded anonymously by three referees to determine their categorization as oral, theme poster, or general poster presentations. The 300 or so accepted absracts were then allocated to seven plenary sessions, nine theme poster discus­ sion groups and three large general poster sessions.

Urolithiasis is a common disorder which is recognised in most parts of the world and occurs in both man and animals. The multifactorial nature of the problem requires an interdisciplinary approach which has always been a feature of this series of International Symposia which started in Leeds in 1968 and has progressed at four-yearly intervals through Madrid, Davos and Williamsburg. The latest Meeting, at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in April 1984, involved 302 participants from all five continents. The major emphasis of the Meeting was to blend the basic and clinical research on urolithiasis. Comprehensive reviews of the major areas of current research were presented by invited speakers, all internationally recognized experts in their fields. From more than 250 submitted abstracts, 18 were selected for oral presentation and the remainder presented at three afternoon poster sessions which provided an opportunity for informal and more lengthy discussions of the work on display. The Meeting also included three ad hoc Evening Discussions on how to approach various unsolved questions in the clinical and laboratory evaluation of stone patients and four Round Table Discussions involving specialists in the field who debated the theoretical aspects of stone formation in the urinary tract, the measurement of inhibitory activity of urine, the treatment of idiopathic stones with drugs, and the nature and treatment of stones arising from urinary tract infection.