Shock wave lithotripsy (SWL) is a safe and non-invasive treatment for kidney stones. The SWL machine that is currently in use has a unique feature: the focal zone or the energy that the SWL energy is focused on in order to break kidney stones can be varied in size from a narrow (or small) focal zone to a wide (or large) focal zone. Previous lithotripters have only offered one focal size that corresponded to a narrow range. The objective of this study is to compare the single-treatment success rates of narrow and wide focal zones for the shock wave lithotripsy of renal stones between 5 and 15 mm in greatest diameter, while maintaining a constant overall lithotripsy energy level. A wide focal zone may offer some trade-offs when compared with the traditional narrow focal zone: since the area being treated is larger, it is more likely that the stone will receive adequate energy as it moves with patient breathing during treatment, and less energy per cubic inch will be delivered to the kidney around the stone (which might lead to a lower degree of renal injury); on the other hand less energy per cubic inch will also be delivered to the stone, so that stone fragmentation might be inferior to that with a narrow focal zone. Thus, with this study we want to determine whether there is a significant difference in both stone fragmentation and in renal injury (as measured by the incidence of post-treatment renal hematoma or bruises, and by measuring urinary markers indicating the degree of renal cellular damage). Aside from the random choice of focal zone size, there will be no change to the standard of care for lithotripsy treatment. We predict that the narrow focal shock zone will result in superior stone fragmentation, with higher single-treatment stone free and success rates. However, we may identify a slight increased incidence in the rate of subcapsular renal hematoma and renal damage, as detected by urinary markers.
Shockwave lithotripsy (SWL) is a safe, non-invasive treatment for renal calculi. During SWL energy is focused on in order to break kidney stones and this energy can be varied in size from a narrow (or small) focal zone to a wide (or large) focal zone. This is a multi-centered, randomized study comparing the single treatment success rates of narrow and wide focal zones during SWL.