Procurement Trends: Lithotripsy - March 2014

Kidney stones are one of the most common disorders affecting the urinary tract. Stones that cannot be passed naturally or that cause great pain can be treated by lithotripsy. The two main types of treatment are extracorporeal lithotripsy and intracorporeal lithotripsy. Extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy (ESWL) noninvasively disintegrates kidney stones with focused shock waves, allowing the resulting sand-size fragments to pass out of the body during urination. Intracorporeal lithotripsy systems are used to locate, view, fragment, and remove stones either through the urethra or percutaneously through an incision in the back. According to the European Association of Urology guidelines on urolithiasis, ESWL is the recommended first line treatment for kidney stones up to 2 cm in size in the renal pelvis or upper/middle calyx while intracorporeal lithotripsy is the preferred choice for stones greater than 2 cm.

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