The IAA One Minute Blog

A new noninvasive ultrasound technique is capable of quickly pulverizing kidney stones, an early study shows. Researchers believe this is a first step toward a simpler, anesthesia free treatment for a painful problem.

Treating Kidney Stones

The new study reports on the first 19 patients who’ve had kidney stones treated with ultrasound “bursts.” So far it’s been able to completely or nearly completely break up stones within 10 minutes.

The ultimate goal, according to researchers, is to perform the new procedure on fully awake patients during an office visit with an urologist—or even in the emergency room when patients arrive in severe pain.

Right now, many kidney stones can be treated with a procedure called shock wave lithotripsy. It delivers high-energy sound waves through the skin to break the stone into tiny fragments that can then be passed. Shock wave therapy can be painful so it is typically done in an operating room, with patients under anesthesia.

Unlike shock wave therapy, the burst wave approach uses “short harmonic bursts” of ultrasound energy according to the research team. Previous research has suggested it can break up stones more quickly, and with less pain, than shock waves.

In the new study the researchers tested the burst wave technique in 19 patients who were undergoing kidney stone treatment with a procedure called ureteroscopy. Because ureteroscopy requires anesthesia, the study patients were under when the ultrasound bursts were applied for up to 10 minutes. Overall, the researchers found that was enough to fragment 21 of 23 stones. Half of the stones had at least 90 percent of their volume pulverized to pieces of no more than two millimeters. Nine stones (39 percent) were completely broken down to that degree.

The findings were published in “The Journal of Urology.”     

Kidney stones are common, affecting about 10 percent of people at some point, according to the National Kidney Foundation.

Signs and Symptoms

Kidney stone are hard deposits made of minerals and salts that form inside your kidneys. Often, stones form when the urine becomes concentrated, allowing minerals to crystallize and stick together.

A kidney stone will usually not cause symptoms until it moves around within your kidneys or passes into the tubes connecting the kidneys and the bladder (ureters). If it becomes lodged in the ureters, it may block the flow of urine and cause the kidney to swell and the ureter to spasm, which can be very painful. At this point you may experience these symptoms:

• Pain or burning sensation when urinating
• Pain that comes in waves and fluctuates in intensity
• Pain that radiates to the lower abdomen and groin
• Severe sharp pain in the side and back, below the ribs

Each year more than half a million people go to the emergency room for kidney stone problems.

What IAA has to Say

Insurance Administrator of America thinks that it is always important to have the latest health information in your back pocket! Remember, with IAA one call does it all.

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