[Laser-induced intracorporeal lithotripsy of bile duct calculi]

About 5-10% of all bile-duct stones cannot be removed by endoscopic papillotomy and mechanic lithotripsy. Intracorporal laser lithotropsy has meanwhile become a safe technique which can be used in an endoscopic retrograde way or percutaneously transhepatically. The greatest clinical experience exists in connection with pulsed dye laser systems. More recent developments are the solid-state laser (Alexandrit laser) and dye laser, which include an integrated stone-tissue differentiation system. With the latter system purely radiologically controlled intracorporal lithotripsy is possible in selected cases. This paper reports clinical experience with this lithotripsy system in 17 patients.