[Gallbladder morphology after extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy of gallstones with the MPL-9000]

The effects of extracorporeal spark-gap shockwave lithotripsy (ESWL) on human gallbladder-morphology are barely known. We studied the gallbladders of nine patients cholecystectomized 5 to 166 days after ESWL. Patients were treated one to three times receiving a mean of 1928 +/- 693 shockwaves per treatment, with a total of 3375 +/- 1307 per patient. Control gallbladders were of randomly selected patients after plain cholecystectomy (age and sex-matched). There was no difference in pathomorphology of the two groups. No signs of trauma related damage (hemorrhage, necrosis, ulceration, scar, or hemosiderin deposits) other than from surgical manipulation were found. Predominant pathomorphological changes were signs of chronic cholecystitis due to gallstone disease. In conclusion, spark-gap ESWL did not induce deleterious morphological damage to the gallbladder, although large numbers of shock waves were applied.