Stones: Treatment Options

Depending on the size of the stone your doctor will suggest treatment options ranging from home remedies such as, drinking additional water (about 8-10 glasses a day to keep urine clear), from medication to invasive surgical intervention (approximately 1 or 2 out of every 10 kidney stone will need interventional treatment)¹. Your doctor can advise you on which procedure is best for your type of stone. One of the common surgical interventional treatments is holmium laser lithotripsy. Learn more about PowerSuite^™ holmium laser lithotripsy treatment.

Non-Invasive Procedures

Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL): uses shock waves to break a kidney stone into small pieces that can more easily travel through the urinary tract and pass from the body. This treatment options often times requires multiple treatments to fully treat the stone, only targets smaller stones of certain types.

Minimally-Invasive Surgical

PowerSuite Holmium Laser Lithotripsy: a treatment option that uses a small laser fiber to be snaked up the ureter to the stone, the stone is ablated (broken into small pieces) and then the small remnants are suctioned away. The advantage of VersaPulse Holmium laser lithotripsy over other basic endoscopic treatments that do not first break up the stone is less stone movement and less bleeding during treatment.

Invasive Surgical

Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy (PCNL): This method is often used on kidney stones larger than 2 centimeters in size or for hard stones. General anesthesia is required. A small incision is made in the back and a telescope (called nephroscope) is passed directly into the kidney. Direct fragmentation of the stone is performed using an ultrasonic, electrohydraulic, or laser device through the nephroscope under direct vision.

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¹ - WebMD Kidney Stone Information