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What Are Shock Waves?

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Urinary Tract Stone Disease

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Abstract

Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (SWL) has become the primary, noninvasive treatment modality for patients with stones in the kidney or ureter. Given this, it is essentially mandatory for all urologists to have basic knowledge of shock waves so that they may perform safer and more efficient SWL treatments. Unfortunately, most of the literature on shock wave physics is highly specialized. With this in mind, the aim of this chapter is to provide an easy to follow description of what lithotripter shock waves are. This chapter may also serve as a guide for physicians working on non-urological shock wave lithotripsy or other clinical and experimental applications of shock waves to medicine. The physics behind shock wave lithotripsy is quite a large subject, so a special effort has been made here to focus the discussion on an understanding of what shock waves are.

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Acknowledgments

The author acknowledges Francisco Fernández, Ulises Mora, and Arturo Méndez for support. All figures were designed by Gabriela Trucco.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Física Aplicada y Tecnología Avanzada, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Querétaro, México, México

    Achim M. Loske

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  1. Achim M. Loske
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Correspondence to Achim M. Loske .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Urology, Spire Manchester Hospital, Russell Road, Manchester, M16 8AJ, United Kingdom

    Nagaraja P. Rao

  2. Division of Urologic Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, 27710, North Carolina, USA

    Glenn M. Preminger

  3. Department of Urology, South Manchester University Hospitals, Manchester, M20 2LR, United Kingdom

    John P. Kavanagh

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Loske, A.M. (2010). What Are Shock Waves?. In: Rao, N., Preminger, G., Kavanagh, J. (eds) Urinary Tract Stone Disease. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84800-362-0_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84800-362-0_22

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-84800-361-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-84800-362-0

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