Abstract

Background: nephrolithiasis is a common complex disease. It is the third most common disaster of the urinary tract, exceeded only by urinary tract infections and pathologic conditions of the prostate. About 50 % of recurrent stone formers have just one life time recurrence. At present, the great expansion in minimally invasive techniques has led to the decrease in open stone surgery (OSS). Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) has been introduced as an alternative approach which disintegrates stones in the kidney and upper urinary tract through the use of shock waves (SWs). Nevertheless, as there are limitations with the success rate in ESWL, other minimally invasive modalities for kidney stones such as percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PNL) are considered.

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