Awake patients can have kidney stones moved, blasted: Ultrasound can be used to move, reposition or break up kidney stones, all while the patient is awake, a new study finds

According to a new feasibility study published in The Journal of Urology, a new technique which combines the use of two technologies may offer an option to move stones out of the urethra with no pain or anesthesia.

In the procedure, the physician places a handheld transducer on the skin to amplify the sound of the waves. The break up of the stone can be done using the burst wave lithotripsy technique.

The technology doesn't hurt, unlike shock wave lithotripsy, which requires a lot of anesthesia. It's almost painless and you can do it while the patient is awake.

Hall said that the research team hopes that the procedure of moving or breaking up the stones could be done in a clinic or emergency room.

Emergency departments see a lot of stones in the ureter, which leads from the kidneys to the bladder. If the stone won't pass on its own, most patients should wait. Nearly one-fourth of patients eventually require surgery during the observation period.

Over the course of their lives, one in 11 Americans will have a stone. One study found that the incidence appears to be increasing. 50% of patients with a stone event will return within five years, according to the study.

There is a need for a way to treat stones without surgery.

The study was designed to see if BWL could be used to break up stones in awake patients.

Patients took part in the study. Thirteen were treated with burst wave lithotripy. Nineteen patients had the stones move. The stones moved out of the urethra and into the bladder.

In seven of the cases, the waves broke the stones. At a two week follow up, 18 of 21 patients had passed their stones, which were located lower in the urethra. The study said that the average time to stone passage was four days.

The study stated that one patient felt immediate relief when the stone was removed.

The next step for the researchers would be to perform a clinical trial with a control group, which would not receive either BWL bursts or ultrasound propulsion, to evaluate the degree to which this new technology could aid stone passage.

Five years ago, NASA funded a study to see if this technology could be used on long space flights. The technology has worked so well that NASA has taken a dimmer view of the problem.

There is a potential solution for that problem.

Patients were studied at Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington Medical Center-Montlake, and the Northwest Kidney Stone Center at the University of Washington Medical Center. The University of Washington School of Medicine has departments of emergency medicine, urology, and radiology.

A number of trials have looked at breaking apart stones in the kidneys. This is the first trial to look at breaking the stones apart with BWL.

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1. M. Kennedy Hall, Jeff Thiel, Barbrina Dunmire, Patrick C. Samson, Ross Kessler, Peter Sunaryo, Robert M. Sweet, Ian S. Metzler, Helena C. Chang, Martin Gunn, Manjiri Dighe, Layla Anderson, Christina Popchoi, Ravi Managuli, Bryan W. Cunitz, Barbara H. Burke, Lisa Ding, Brianna Gutierrez, Ziyue Liu, Mathew D. Sorensen, Hunter Wessells, Michael R. Bailey, Jonathan D. Harper. First Series Using Ultrasonic Propulsion and Burst Wave Lithotripsy to Treat Ureteral Stones. Journal of Urology, 2022; 208 (5): 1075 DOI: 10.1097/JU.0000000000002864