[The "in situ" treatment of ureteral calculi with extracorporeal lithotripsy].

The authors report on 80 cases of ureteral calculi treated with in situ extracorporeal shock wave (ESWL), with no retrograde or antegrade maneuvers. Success rate was high (97.5%). Forty-two calculi were located in the proximal ureter above the sacroiliac joint; 10 were in the pre-sacral ureter, and 28 in the pelvic ureter, below the inferior border of the sacroiliac joint. After ESWL, double-J stents were positioned in 5 patients and nephrostomy was performed in 4 cases with positioning of 7-F pig-tail catheters; 8 patients (10%) underwent additional post-lithotripsy urologic and radiologic examinations. Lithotripsy having failed in 2 patients (2.5%), surgery with ureterolithotomy was performed. In situ ESWL of ureteral calculi emerges from this trial as the treatment of choice and not as an alternative to urologic maneuvers or open surgery with ureterolithotomy: the latter methods are necessary only after ESWL failure.