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Comment by hans_castorp | Hacker News Reader

Don't they break up kidney stones using ultrasound as well? Or is that a different type of "ultrasound"?

“Lithotripsy” is the name of the kidney stone treatment. My understanding is it’s based on vibration, not ultrasound (I know, vibration is sound - my understanding is the method on the linked article uses higher frequency + intensity + shorter pulses than the kidney stone method - so sorta like microwaving tumors vs using a massage gun on kidney stones?)

I think parent is thinking of "Ultrasonic lithotripsy" which does use ultrasound.

I’ve had it, it’s ultrasound but it’s not always effective against hard stones.

I think that's traditionally done with lasers.

That’s transurethral lithotripsy.

Having had kidney stones, they're both used. I think for the sonic one they put you in a water bath because it conducts better. But as I understand it, the docs can pick whichever one is more optimal, be it shattering the stone sonically or zapping it with a laser.

My surgeon told me my previous kidney cancer surgery (partial nephrectomy) meant my 7/8 size kidney wouldn't handle ultrasound treatment for the big kidney stone I'd developed 10 years after the cancer. So laser instead! Worked well but not much fun at the time.

AFIKR two facilities do this kind of treatment. One in Canada and one in China. There already was a HN threads with some reporting to have been treated in Canada.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31630679

Apparently, only some tumors have a distinct and unique shape / size. The “trick” is to calibrate the resonance exactly to the size of the cancer cell. So that resonance would “hurt” only that kind of shape / size cell. Which was much harder to do than it sounds. Sadly not all cancer cells are unique and not that “easily” distinguishable by size

But I am not in the medical field and just repeating what I’ve read.

yup. If the stone is mineral-based and within certain sizes, you can break it up with a special ultrasound. Except.... in morbidly obese patients, if you can imagine the why.

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