Large kidney stones can be removed by a surgical procedure where a small puncture is made through the back into the kidney (percutaneous nephrolithotomy or PNL) but the stones usually need to be broken into smaller pieces before they can be removed through the small surgical incision. There are a number of FDA approved devices commercially available used to break up the stones including pneumatic, ultrasonic, and a combination of the two. Each technology has advantages and disadvantages.
In the last few years there have been new, improved versions of these devices introduced. These improved versions have addressed previous issues of probes clogging or breaking and cumbersome handpiece design. These include the Cyberwand (Cybersonics, Erie, PA), a dual probe ultrasonic device, Swiss Lithoclast Select (EMS, Switzerland) combining the pneumatic and ultrasonic modalities, and a novel device by LMA (Gland, Switzerland) called the StoneBreakerTM, a portable pneumatic device powered by CO2 cartridges.
We propose to compare each of these devices in a randomized study to see if one is better than another at removing kidney stones quickly and efficiently.
