Word.ws English Dictionary

litholytic

litholytic adjective: pertaining to the dissolution of stones, especially calculi such as gallstones, kidney stones, etc.

Adjective

litholytic (comparative more litholytic, superlative most litholytic)

  1. Pertaining to the dissolution of stones, especially calculi such as gallstones, kidney stones, etc.
    • Varuna is one of the best litholytic herbs and has been used throughout the ages for the treatment of urolithiasis and crystalluria.2001, Prakash Paranjpe, Indian Medicinal Plants: Forgotten Healers
    • In the clinical practice, citric acid therapy has some problems, including its taste, large volume to drink, need for hospitalisation, and unpredictable litholytic effect.2007, William C. Langley, Pancreatitis Research Advances, →ISBN, page 265

Noun

litholytic (plural litholytics)

  1. A medicinal substance that has a litholytic effect.
    • Treatment options for symptomatic cholelithiasis include surgery, dissolution with oral bile salt litholytics or contact solvents, and current fragmentation.1993, Joseph T. DiPiro, Pharmacotherapy: A Pathophysiologic Approach, page 618
    • Accordingly, citric acid, a calcium chelator, was selected as a pancreatic litholytic, and a 50-mg pancreatic stone was dissolved in vitro after 25 days ina solution of 3.9 mM/L citric acid, corresponding to a concentration of 749 μg/mL in the pancreatic juice following injection of citric acid...2007, William C. Langley, Pancreatitis Research Advances, →ISBN, page 265

Examples of litholytic in a sentence

  • Chance of recurrence The follow-up of patients who have become stone-free after combined ESWL/ adjuvant litholytic therapy is still relatively short.2012, G.N. Tytgat, Chr.J Mulder, Procedures in Hepatogastroenterology, →ISBN, page 477:
  • Retrograde irrigation of the renal pelvis with litholytic solutions (Instrumental kidney stone chemolysis).2012, H. Fleisch, Urolithiasis Research, →ISBN, page 553:
  • Phyllanthus niuri (chanca piedra) herb is a traditional litholytic; its Spanish common name translates as “stone breaker.”2016, Chughtai Bilal, Healing In Urology, →ISBN:

Forms of litholytic

Adjective
comparativemore litholytic
superlativemost litholytic
Noun
plurallitholytics

Origin of litholytic

From litho- + -lytic.

Questions about litholytic

What does litholytic mean?
Litholytic means pertaining to the dissolution of stones, especially calculi such as gallstones, kidney stones, etc.
How do you use litholytic in a sentence?
Chance of recurrence The follow-up of patients who have become stone-free after combined ESWL/ adjuvant litholytic therapy is still relatively short.
What part of speech is litholytic?
Litholytic can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near litholytic in the dictionary

  1. lithologists
  2. lithology
  3. litholopaxies
  4. litholopaxy
  5. litholysis
  6. litholytic
  7. litholytics
  8. lithomancy
  9. lithomania
  10. lithomantic
  11. lithomarga

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: litholytic (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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