[Guest]

After many years of suffering from kidney stones no real helpful diagnosis from hospitals attended, at last on my last visit to eurologist he is putting me ward crushing my kidney stones I have no idea entails, is in any way harmful to kidney? I have one stone at least 4 mm long?

[Guest]

The treatment is called ESWL for Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy. (It is pronounced "Ess-Wall") This uses a large machine that generates a shock wave that passes harmlessly through the body but fragments stones. It was originally designed to use shock waves to test airplane parts for supersonic flight. Anyway, the technique works very well and there are a number of machines out there that do the job well.

Most patients receive some type of sedation or anesthetic. Often, patients will need a stent or tube to help keep large stones from clogging the ureter or to help identify smaller stones.

In your case, it's nothing to be worried about. You should instead be talking to your physicians about 24 hour urine collections to identify the high risk factors that are causing you to make so many stones and what you can do about it. For a more complete explanation, check my book "The Kidney Stones Handbook" by clicking on the book name in the lower right hand column.

Stephen W. Leslie, MD

Assistant Clinical Professor
Dept. of Urology
Medical College of Ohio

Founder and Medical Director
Lorain Kidney Stone Research Center
Lorain, Ohio