6 Differences Between Kidney Stones and Gallstones

Many have confusion about Gallstones and Kidney stones. As a matter of fact there are so many people out there who think both are same. When they simply refer that their diagnosis has confirmed the presence of stone, they immediately confuse both. The occurrence of Kidney stones is more known than the Gallstones. In other words, the awareness about the occurrence of Gallstones is relatively low compared to Kidney stones. Let us see the differences.


  1. Kidney stones are real stones and they are made of calcium and other minerals that crystallize in the kidney where as Gallstones are mostly made of cholesterol or pigments and are more of a solid lump than a stone.
  2. Men are prone to getting Kidney stones whereas women are more prone to getting Gallstones.
  3. If the Kidney stones get down the renal canal, they end up being broken down and passing out of the body which is good news whereas if the Gallstones gets out, they end up blocking the bile path and can cause serious damage and emergency which is not a good news.
  4. Kidney stone lead to blood in the urine whereas the manifestation of gallstones can lead to jaundice and other complications
  5. Kidney stones based on the size can be treated by medicines too whereas the only option available for gallstones is to remove the stone with gallbladder in case the diagnosis confirms the presence of it.
  6. Kidney stones can be avoided by developing the habit of taking regular fluid intakes whereas Gallstones can be avoided by taking food that are less in cholesterol.