An experience of piezoelectric extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy monotherapy in 300 patients of lower ureteral stones

Oh, Chung Hwan; Moon, Young Tae; Kim, Kyung Do; Kim, Sae Chul

Abstract

Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) monotherapies were performed in 300 patients of lower ureteral stones using EDAP-LT01 piezoelectric lithotripter. Among the 300 patients, 236(78.7%) had a single stone 8(2.6%) multiple stones and 66 (18.7%) fragmented stones following ESWL of renal or upper ureteral stones including 9 cases of steinstrasse. The stone size ranged from 0.3 to 2.6cm (mean 0.9cm) in diameter. In all the patients except one who underwent previous pelvic surgery, the stones were easily localized by ultrasound scanning. The overall success(stone free) rate was 97.0%. The numbers of treatment sessions increased in accordance with stone size with average number of 1.5 sessions in 293 patients of successful results. There were relatively low but no significant complications. Therefore, the in-situ ESWL monotherapy with piezoelctric lithotripter is considered to be a safe, effective and easily appliable outpatient procedure as the first method to treat lower ureteral stones.