[Clinical experiences of 35 cases with upper urinary tract stones by extracorporeal shock wave lithotripter (MEDSTONE 1000)].
We made clinical trials of the extracorporeal shock wave lithotripter (MEDSTONE-1000) in patients with upper urinary tract stones. Thirty-five cases (total 40 trials) treated during the period of October 1987 through March 1988 were enrolled in this study. The ages of the cases ranged from 22 to 65 (average 43.9) years old, comprising 23 men and 12 women. The site of presence of urinary tract stones was the renal pelvis and calyx in 28 cases and the upper ureter in 7 cases. The size of the stone was smaller than 1 cm in 15 cases, 1 to 2 cm in 12 cases, 2 to 3 cm in 7 cases and larger than 3 cm in 1 case. 13 patients with renal stones were treated with double-J stent catheter and all patients with ureteral stones were treated with the ureteral balloon catheter or flexible-tip ureteral catheter as preoperative manipulation. In 26 cases epidural anesthesia was used and the others were treated under general anesthesia. Stone targetting was determined by two oblique radiographs from separate axes. The intensity of shock waves was mainly 24 KV and the maximum shock wave counts to break up stones were 6800 shots. The size of the broken stone fragments was less than 2 mm in 24 cases (68.5%) and 2 to 5 mm in 10 cases (28.6%), which indicated that the procedure was very effective. However, one case in whom the stone could not be broken was with cystinuria. After three months the fragments completely passed in 22 cases (64.7%) and the residual fragments larger than 5 mm were left in 2 cases (5.9%).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)