Statistical case study of extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy

Abstract

Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) is one of the recent, most common ways of treating patients with urinary (renal and ureteric) stones through non-invasive destruction of stones. Many reports and studies have shown its safety and success. It offers the patient less pain, much less discomfort and less severe complications usually associated with open surgery procedures. This study does not aim to only establish a few facts about this method or treatment; it, also, strives to suggest a statistical model of predicting and planning treatment, which, in turn, saves a great deal of staff's and patient's time. A whole list of factors was studied against each other, and distributions of these factors were deducted. Especially, we have studied the relationships between patient age and number of sessions through the knowledge of the stone size and number of stones.