Safety of shock wave lithotripsy for treatment of pediatric urolithiasis: 20-year experience

Purpose: This retrospective study was designed to assess the impact of shock wave lithotripsy on the pediatric kidney using pretreatment and posttreatment (99m)technetium dimercapto-succinic acid renal scintigram.Materials and Methods: A total of 182 patients 5 months to 19.8 years old (mean 5.3 years) were treated for renal calculi with shock wave lithotripsy during a 20-year period.Pretreatment evaluation included clinical assessment, urine culture, renal ultrasound and plain abdominal radiograph with or without excretory urogram.Dimercapto-succinic acid scintigram was performed before and 6 months after completion of treatment in 94 patients (52%).Results: Patients underwent 1 to 4 sessions of shock wave lithotripsy per kidney with at least 1 month between treatments.Median number of shocks delivered per session was 3,000 (IQR 2,601 to 3,005).No new scars were observed on any posttreatment dimercapto-succinic acid scan.Regarding renal function, patients fell into 1 of 4 groups.Group 1 (66 patients, 70%) had normal function on dimercapto-succinic acid scan before and after treatment, group 2 (18, 19%) had decreased function in the affected kidney on pretreatment scan with no change after treatment, group 3 (2, 2%) had impaired function in the treated kidney that was transient (1) or permanent (1) and group 4 (7, 7%) had improved function in the treated kidney.Conclusions: Shock wave lithotripsy is an effective treatment for renal calculi in children.Renal parenchymal trauma associated with extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy does not seem to cause long-term alterations in renal function or development of permanent renal scars in children.