Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of novel nanosecond electropulse lithotripsy in comparison with established Holmium laser lithotripsy.
Material and Methods: An in-vitro study was conducted using BegoStone phantoms, which mimic hard stones based on an established model, as well as soft stones, were used for fragmentation testing. Four different stone sizes were used in the testing (having stone volumes of 100, 144, 256 and 320 mm3). A nanosecond electropulse lithotripter and a Holmium laser lithotripter were operated at comparable energy settings and pulse rates using different probe and fiber sizes in direct contact with the stone phantoms in order to achieve a stone fragment size of less than 2 mm. The number of pulses, cumulative total energy and "net" operation time necessary to achieve the fragmentation objective were recorded.
Results: The results of the present study confirm that for all types of stone samples and pulse settings used in this experiment, the nanosecond electropulse lithotripter requires significantly less cumulative energy and time in order to achieve stone disintegration than the Holmium laser lithotripter. The two compared lithotripters differ by the mechanisms of stone destruction, which explains the differences of the received results versus density and hardness of the stone phantoms.
Written by:
Martov A, Diamant V, Borisik A, Andronov A, Chernenko V. Are you the author?
Municipal clinical hospital #57 of Moscow, EndoUrology, Moscow, Russian Federation.
Reference: J Endourol. 2013 Aug 1. Epub ahead of print.
doi: 10.1089/end.2013.0124
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 23905871
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