Lithotripsy requires a great deal of sophisticated equipment. Furthermore, stone fragmentation often requires sedation or anesthesia due to the significant pain associated with it. A new non-invasive technology, Lithovortex, addresses these issues by using vortex sound waves, according to the Polytechnic University of Valencia's website.
During treatment, acoustic vortex beams are created that rotate around the stones like a tornado, causing their gentle disintegration. Despite its gentle nature, the new method has proven to be more effective than lithotripsy. Therefore, it takes half the time, allowing the patient to dispense with sedation.
The authors report that Lithovortex is not limited to kidney stones and can be used for other purposes, such as fragmenting aortic valve calcifications. The team is currently continuing preclinical experiments and testing the technology in various models.
Previously, other scientists presented an improved version of lithotripsy—Break Wave technology—which demonstrated excellent results in stone fragmentation in patients in clinical trials. It also does not require sedation.
