Stone Breaking Treatment From Outside Of the Body
ESWL (Extracorporal Schock Wave Lithotripsy)
Piezolith 3000
The success ratio in urinary system (kidneys, urinary bladder, urinary tract) stones is between 95 – 98%.
In our centre, treatment is done using small focused Wolf – Piezolith 3000 stone breaking equipment. By focusing the shock waves to a small area (3-6 mm) (small focused equipment), the tissues surrounding the stone are not damaged, the patient feels much less pain and most importantly it can be used safely in baby and child patients. By using ultrasonography and scopy for imaging the stone and focusing, the X-ray using period is minimised. When necessary, the stones focused with X-rays can be followed-up simultaneously with ultrasonography during treatment. By using ultrasonograhy, the stones which are not visible by x-rays (nonopaque) can be successfully treated.
The stone breaking treatment is based on focusing the high frequency sound waves obtained from a source outside of the body on to the stone and breaking these stones. The shock waves focused on the stone cause surface erosion, and a stress wave which seperates the structural parts of the stone and by this way the stone is broken into pieces.
The sound wave in our equipment is produced by a transducer which is formed of many quartz crystals. The quartz crystals respond to the high voltage impulse by expanding (piezo-electric effect). After the electric impulse the crystals turn back to their original shapes and after a new impulse the expansion starts again. During this expansion and contraction high frequency sound waves (shock waves) are produced due to molecular friction.
The shock waves are transmitted to the body through an disc shaped elastic membrane which contains processed water. The treatment is usually painless and anesthesia is very rarely necessary in adults. For children below 4 years old anesthesia is usually preferred.
