DO STONES ALWAYS PASS OUT AFTER LITHOTRIPSY TREATMENT?
Sometimes stone clearance is delayed by a fragment, which blocks the ureter. The doctor may advise the patient to have this removed by ureteroscopy.
WHAT IS ENDOSCOPIC LITHOTRIPSY?
 Many stones can be removed without conventional surgery by introducing small telescopes into the body either through normal urinary passage or through a pencil size hole in the skin (the percutaneous approach).
HOW ARE STONES IN THE URETER REMOVED?
Suitable stones within the ureter can be crushed with ESWL, be removed, pushed back to the kidney for subsequent ESWL or broken down by small portable lithotriptor under direct vision and removed using forceps. This avoids the need for open surgery.
WHAT IS MINIMALLY INVASIVE TREATMENT?
PCNL or can be reached via a pencil sized skin hole and very large kidney Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy is minimally invasive surgery for large kidney stones. Stones in the kidney stones can be broken down within the kidney and removed piecemeal. Consequently, the remaining small fragments become easily manageable with ESWL.
IS CONVENTIONAL SURGERY STILL REQUIRED FOR STONES?
Not all stones are amenable to treatment by the modern methods. In certain circumstances, the kidney or ureteric stones are still best managed by open surgery, however, this accounts for only a small fraction of all stone patients. The doctor can now utilize a wide variety of instruments and diagnostic aids to select the most appropriate treatment for the patient. A combination of ESWL and minimally invasive treatment may be suitable alternative of open surgery.
HOW DO I GET AN APPOINTMENT?
For scheduling an appointment with the doctor, please call, fax or email us.
WHAT WILL IT COST?
The cost of Lithotripsy treatment varies depending on the nature and type of the kidney stones.
HOW CAN RECURRENCE OF KIDNEY STONES BE PREVENTED?
Kidney stones can occur in certain metabolic disorders or structural abnormalities of the genito-urinary system. Blood and urine chemistry along with an IVP are used to detect such abnormalities. Correction of the underlying disorder is the mainstay in prevention against recurrent disease. Additionally, the first degree relatives of stone patients have a higher risk of stone disease. It is advised that they should be screened with an ultrasound and KUB X-ray for asymptomatic disease. However many patients have no demonstrable abnormality on metabolic work-up.
 30-50% of people with a first kidney stone will get a second one within five years. The risk of getting a second stone is about 5-10% each year.
The best preventive measure is to increase water intake. The risk of getting a second stone can be halved by drinking enough water to produce two or more liters urine a day.
It is not necessary to change your diet if you have had a kidney stone, unless you have a metabolic disease. In particular, a low calcium diet has not been shown to be useful in preventing stone recurrence, and may actually worsen the problem of thin bones (osteoporosis) in stone sufferers.
In stone formers who have a high level of uric acid in their urine or who make uric acid stones, the drug allopurinol can reduce the rate of recurrence of stones.
If stones are associated with infection, complete clearance of both the stones and the infection is required if recurrence is to be avoided.
ARE DOCTORS AT SIBIA MEDICAL CENTRE WELL TRAINED IN ESWL?
They are trained by the Teaching Department of Direx Ltd, Israel who are world leaders in Liithotripsy. Sibia Medical Centre has the most experienced team of doctors managing urinary stones and created history by introducing Lithotripsy for the first time in North India in 1991. They have treated thousands of stone patients.
Please compare the different treatments for kidney stones.
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