Extracorporeal piezoelectric shock wave lithotripsy of salivary gland stones: first clinical experiences.

Piezoelectric lithotripsy was undertaken on 14 patients with salivary stones, none of them requiring anesthesia, analgesics, or sedatives. All salivary stones were fragmented totally during the first lithotripsy session. Four months after treatment with extracorporeal shock waves all patients were free of symptoms, and in seven out of 14 patients no concrement could be found sonographically. The piezoelectric lithotripsy of salivary stones had caused no serious side effects proved by clinical, biochemical, sonographic, and magnetic resonance imaging examinations. Extracorporeal piezoelectric lithotripsy is a new and promising nonsurgical therapy for selected cases of sialolithiasis of the large salivary glands.