Shock wave lithotripsy for distal ureteric stones: supin or prone

Shock Wave Lithotripsy (SWL) has become the preferred first-line approach to most patients with symptomatic urolithiasis. The purpose of this study is to assess the ideal patient position during SWL for the treatment of distal ureter stones. A total of 342 patients included in this retrospective study. 148 (108 men, 40 women) patients were included in the first group and were treated in supine position. The remaining 194 (143 men, 51 women) patients were included to second group and were treated in prone position. This study designed retrospectively. The procedure was accepted as a success if the patient was stone free or had only clinically insignificant fragments (≤3 mm) for 3 months or more after the last SWL session. Before SWL, the mean is one area in the first group was 61.32 mm² while the mean stone area in the second group was 59.04 mm² (p = 0.208). Mean energy, Mean energy maximum and mean number of applied shock waves of the first group was 4.65, 3.19 and 3,960, respectively. The same parameters in second group were 4.26, 3.03 and 2,953, respectively. These results show that there are statistically significant differences between two groups with respect to mean energy, mean energy maximum and mean number of applied shock waves (p = 0.003, p = 0.010, p = 0.000, respectively). Success rate was 85.1% in group 1 and 72.7% in group 2 (p = 0.006). Our results suggest that supine position is effective and better than prone position for SWL in patients with distal ureteric stones.