What is Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy | ESWL in New Delhi India

ESWL or Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy is a modality of kidney stone treatment. Dr Vijayant Govinda Gupta is an urologist in Delhi who specialises ESWL for Kidney Stones in New Delhi India. I am a specialist in ESWL for kidney stones and have performed more than a 100 successful ESWL procedures for kidney stones. Contact today for a free E consult via email.

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What is Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy (ESWL) ?

ESWL is a non invasive modality to treat kidney stones. It is a german technology, originally developed by Dornier. In this technique, a machine produced, very high intensity sound waves. These sound waves are focussed at your stone inside your body. These sound waves will then break the stone and the kidney stone fragment swill pass out into the urine. The lure of ESWL lies in its ability to provide treatment without any incision or anesthesia.

Advantages of ESWL

ESWL was once upon a time the messiah of urologists everywhere. Due to its simple nature, no incision, no risk of bleeding, surgeons everywhere installed the machines in their clinics. Due to this blinded trust in this modality, all patients would receive one or more sessions of ESWL during the course of their kidney stone treatment.

But ESWL has today few areas of true use, especially with the arrival of minimally invasive PNL and RIRS.

Today ESWL is truly indicated in the following conditions

  • Very small stones – less than 1 cm
  • Stones not amenable to RIRS or PNL – narrow infundibulum and lower calyx stones
  • Stone fragment left behind after PNL

Disadvantages of ESWL

ESWL has certain drawbacks

  • It is basically a blind procedure. The wave is focussed on the stone, but with breathing the stone will move in and out of the focus zone.
  • The wave will and can cause collateral damage to the kidneys
  • Bleeding and infections are known to occure with ESWL
  • It also has some pain associated with the procedure
  • And ESWL will break apart the stone, but the fragment s have to pass out with urine. Larger stones are not very amenable to ESWL
  • And ESWL cannot be given in obese, muscular or pregnant individuals
  • Children require general anesthesia

In these circumstances , I would recommend you RIRS or Mini PNL for your kidney stone treatment.

But in highly selected willing patients, where the stone burden is low, or surgery is not possible or if you so wish, I can provide you the Best ESWL in New Delhi India.

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