[Extracorporeal piezoelectric lithotripsy of salivary calculi. Initial clinical experiences]

Piezoelectric lithotripsy was performed in 14 patients with salivary stones. None of the patients required anaesthesia, analgesics or sedatives. All of the salivary stones could be fragmented totally during the first lithotripsy procedure. Three months after treatment with extracorporeal shock waves all the patients were free of symptoms and in 7 out of 14 patients no concrement could be found by sonography. The piezoelectric lithotripsy of salivary stones had caused no serious side effects as proved by clinical, biochemical, sonographic and magnetic resonance imaging examinations. Extracorporeal piezoelectric lithotripsy is a new and promising non-surgical therapy for selected cases of sialolithiasis of the large salivary glands of the neck.