[Clinical experience with extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) in upper urinary tract stones]

We treated 100 patients of upper urinary tract stone using extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL), from April to October 1986. Eighty-six of the patients were treated by ESWL monotherapy, and the other cases required further treatment, such as percutaneous nephrostomy (PCN), percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PNL), and transurethral ureterolithotripsy (TUL). On the X-ray film obtained from one to three months after ESWL, 73 patients had no stones, 8 patients had sandy stones, 7 patients had small fragments less than 5 mm, 2 patients had large stones equal to or greater than 5 mm and 10 patients could not be followed up. Therefore, 97.7% of all patients were successfully treated. In conclusion, ESWL is considered to be an ideal method to treat upper urinary tract stones, and soon will become the first choice of treatment of urolithiasis together with the progress in endourological techniques.