Adam Maxwell, a research associate professor in the Tech’s Department of Biomedical Engineering recently took to the Virginia Tech’s Curious Conversations Podcast to outline a new treatment for kidney stones that received FDA approval this January.
Maxwell said the newly approved method uses a different type of ultrasound than the traditional shockwave lithotripsy method. This new method uses harmonic ultrasound to break up the stones. Maxwell highlighted the differences between the two treatments on the podcast, “You’ve probably seen, like, a cartoon of an opera singer shattering a wine glass with their voice. It’s something like that. Whereas, conversely, you can think of shockwave lithotripsy as you’re hitting the wine glass impulsively with a hammer over and over again to shatter it.”
He said this small change makes a big difference in the patient’s experience of the therapy, and noted a potential danger associated with traditional shockwave lithotripsy, “One patient said it feels like you’re just getting hit in the back over and over again, so usually they have the patients under for it. But it also causes damage to your kidney. They know as a fact it bruises your kidney when they do this.”
Maxwell reported that they have found the new ultrasound harmonic technique to be just about as effective as shockwave lithotripsy, but much more comfortable for the patient and less invasive.
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