Kids Feel Less Pain With Underused Kidney Stone Treatment

Shockwave lithotripsy (SWL) for pediatric patients leads to less pain and fewer abnormal urinary symptoms after recovery than the widely used ureteroscopy (URS) procedure, according to research published in JAMA Network Open .

Researchers and other urologists said the findings confirm what they have observed: Fewer children and teens complain of pain and other symptoms in the days after the SWL than the URS, despite similar efficacy rates of each treatment. The incidence of kidney stones has risen in the past few decades , with the majority of these cases receiving URS .

“Patients are increasingly faced with this question of which procedure to choose and have very little information to guide them,” said Gregory Tasian, MD, director of the Pediatric KIDney Stone Care Improvemen