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Don't they break up kidney stones using ultrasound as well? Or is that a different type of "ultrasound"?
by hans_castorp 1y ago
Don't they break up kidney stones using ultrasound as well? Or is that a different type of "ultrasound"?
- herval 1y ago“Lithotripsy” is the name of the kidney stone treatment. My understanding is it’s based on vibration, not ultrasound (I know, vibration is sound - my understanding is the method on the linked article uses higher frequency + intensity + shorter pulses than the kidney stone method - so sorta like microwaving tumors vs using a massage gun on kidney stones?)
- CaptainOfCoit 1y agoI think parent is thinking of "Ultrasonic lithotripsy" which does use ultrasound.
- bamboozled 1y agoI’ve had it, it’s ultrasound but it’s not always effective against hard stones.
- gosub100 1y agoI think that's traditionally done with lasers.
- bamboozled 1y agoThat’s transurethral lithotripsy.
- psunavy03 1y agoHaving had kidney stones, they're both used. I think for the sonic one they put you in a water bath because it conducts better. But as I understand it, the docs can pick whichever one is more optimal, be it shattering the stone sonically or zapping it with a laser.
- billforsternz 1y agoMy surgeon told me my previous kidney cancer surgery (partial nephrectomy) meant my 7/8 size kidney wouldn't handle ultrasound treatment for the big kidney stone I'd developed 10 years after the cancer. So laser instead! Worked well but not much fun at the time.
- molszanski 1y agoAFIKR two facilities do this kind of treatment. One in Canada and one in China. There already was a HN threads with some reporting to have been treated in Canada. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31630679 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31630679 Apparently, only some tumors have a distinct and unique shape / size. The “trick” is to calibrate the resonance exactly to the size of the cancer cell. So that resonance would “hurt” only that kind of shape / size cell. Which was much harder to do than it sounds. Sadly not all cancer cells are unique and not that “easily” distinguishable by size But I am not in the medical field and just repeating what I’ve read.
- hereme888 1y agoyup. If the stone is mineral-based and within certain sizes, you can break it up with a special ultrasound. Except.... in morbidly obese patients, if you can imagine the why.