Tt. Wu et al., EFFICACY OF IN-VITRO STONE FRAGMENTATION BY EXTRACORPOREAL, ELECTROHYDRAULIC, AND PULSED-DYE LASER LITHOTRIPSY, Journal of endourology, 7(5), 1993, pp. 391-393
Fragmentation has become the standard therapy for urinary calculi in t
he modern era. Stone fragility as well as position and size are import
ant for the determination of a treatment program. To compare the effic
acy of stone fragmentation, seven kinds of human urinary calculi with
known composition (calcium oxalate monohydrate and dihydrate, dibasic
calcium phosphate, uric acid, struvite, calcium phosphate, and cystine
) were treated by three fragmentation techniques commonly used, namely
extracorporeal shock wave (SWL), electrohydraulic (EHL), and pulsed-d
ye laser lithotripsy. Uric acid, calcium oxalate dihydrate, and calciu
m phosphate stones could be destroyed easily by any of these methods.
Struvite was soft but sticky and not easy to break into tiny particles
. Both dibasic calcium phosphate and calcium oxalate monohydrate stone
s were resistant to the laser and EHL; SWL is the treatment of choice.
For cystine stones, none of the treatments was satisfactory; SWL was
the only way to break them into large pieces.