Extracorporeal piezoelectric lithotripsy for all renal stones: effectiveness and limitations

An unselected group of patients with renal stones was treated with extracorporeal piezoelectric lithotripsy (EPL) monotherapy. The results showed that this minimally invasive treatment was very effective for patients with stones smaller than 20 mm. After a minimum follow-up of 1 month, 65% of these patients were stone-free and 22% of the remainder had only small fragments. Patients with larger stones (20 mm or larger) required multiple treatment sessions (mean 5.8) and had less favourable results. One month or more after treatment, only 46% of these patients were free of stone and 21% required secondary operative procedures for obstructing ureteric fragments. Most of these patients are better treated initially by percutaneous nephrolithotomy.