[Should fragments of stone expelled after extracorporeal lithotripsy always be analyzed?]

The morphological and constitutional analysis of renal stone fragments expelled after extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy enables the structure and morphological type of stones to be reconstructed in 92.8 per cent of the cases as regards surface and section and in 74.5 per cent of the cases down to the core. A study of the molecular and crystalline composition of such fragments demonstrated the preponderance of whewellite in both sexes (men 85.4 per cent; women 72.4 per cent). The frequency of weddellite was 1.6 times higher in men (73.8 per cent) than in women (44.8 per cent), and the frequencies of struvite and ammonium urate were 2.8 and 2.6 times respectively higher in women than in men, despite a significant fall in frequency as compared to a previous series. Correlations between morphological type of stone and biochemical data (when available) could be established in 84 per cent of the cases. This made it possible to initiate treatments aimed at preventing recurrences, the cost of these treatments in the long term being lower than that of the curative urological treatments, including extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy.