The Dauphin of Munchausen: Factitious Passage of Renal Stones in a Child

Abstract

The urinary tract appears to play an infrequent role in adult malingering and in Munchausen syndrome, an elaborate, highly organized form of malingering.^1-3 We have found only a small number of reports of factitious hematuria^4-6 and only two cases of genuine renal stones factitiously passed.^7.8 Herring reported in a series of 10,000 analyzed urinary calculi that only 85 were artificial in nature, the commonest being pebbles."⁹ Only a small number of these "stones" were felt to be innocent errors. We know of no reports of these symptoms in children on the basis of conscious malingering. We have treated a child with a clinical picture of renal colic complete with hematuria and "passed stones" which proved to be factitious.