TAMPA, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire)— About one in ten people in the U.S. will develop kidney stones at some point in their life and the summer months are when they are more likely to occur because of dehydration. Some people compare the pain to childbirth or being stabbed. New technology is bringing fast relief to these patients.
Sixty-six-year-old Jack Osmanski is enjoying the retirement life.
“I hunt and fish with my son. I’ve been reading a lot more,” Osmanski, told Ivanhoe.
Until one night he woke up with a sudden and sharp pain.
Osmanski shared, “I’ve been through a few car crashes. I fell through the ceiling seven years ago and I never had a thing that was quite as painful as that in my life.”
Jack had developed a five-millimeter kidney stone, the size of a pencil top eraser.
“It felt like someone was actually stabbing me in the back,” Osmanski exclaimed.
He was given pain meds at the hospital and took a “let it pass on its own” approach. But the stone was not moving.
“If they don’t pass on their own, you can’t leave a kidney stone blocking the kidney for longer than four to six weeks without having long-term kidney damage,” noted Ross Simon, MD, MS, a urologist at Tampa General Hospital noted.
So, Dr. Simon suggested a new laser technology called MOSES. With its ability to fire two pulses of a laser, it can treat bigger kidney stones more efficiently.
“The MOSES technology also allows you to have a more flexible fiber which can get around corners in the kidney and access different stones that we weren’t able to do so easily before,” Dr. Simon elaborated.
Reducing surgery time and the risk of recurrence. Jack had his stone removed with this outpatient procedure and…
“Within two to three days, I started to feel a lot better,” he remarked.
And can continue to enjoy his retirement pain-free.
Jack says the MOSES laser technology was covered by his insurance. Dr. Simon says the laser can also be used to treat prostate conditions, such as BPH.
Contributors to this news report include: Milvionne Chery, Producer; Roque Correa, Videographer; Roque Correa, Editor.
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Source:
MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS
RESEARCH SUMMARY
TOPIC: BLAST AWAY KIDNEY STONES WITH MOSES
REPORT: MB #4931
BACKGROUND: Kidney stones are hard deposits made of mineral and salts that form inside your kidneys. Kidney stones are caused by excess body weight and diet. The stones can affect any part of your urinary tract, from the kidneys to the bladder. The stones form when the urine becomes concentrated which allows minerals to crystalize and stick together. Passing the kidney stones is painful but the stones cause no permanent damage if they are found in a timely manner. If the stones become clogged in the urinary tract and cause complications surgery may be needed.
(Source: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/kidney-stones/symptoms-causes/syc-20355755)
CURRENT TREATMENT: There are different types of treatments depending on the size of the kidney stones. If the stone is small, treatments such as drinking water and pain relievers may help. Drinking water will prevent stones from forming, pain relievers will relieve pain when passing the stones. Large stones require much more extensive treatment, including surgery to remove the stones. If the stone is medium-sized the doctor can use a scope to remove it. To remove a smaller stone in your ureter or kidney, your doctor may pass a thin lighted tube equipped with a camera through your urethra and bladder to your ureter. Once the stone is located, special tools can snare the stone or break it into pieces that will pass in your urine.
(Source: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/kidney-stones/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20355759)
NEW TECHNOLOGY: Holmium laser technology has advanced incrementally through several generations in a way that’s very similar to developments in mobile phones, in that each generation provides users with greater speed and versatility. MOSES technology marked the fourth-generation holmium laser system. The MOSES technology is a platform that manipulates the holmium laser waveform, as well as the first technology to deliver holmium energy over two pulses. The approach allows MOSES to deliver more energy to the stone, achieve finer fragmentation, and produce less retropulsion, which improves visualization and spontaneous stone clearance for laser lithotripsy, allowing doctors to treat it more efficiently.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS REPORT, PLEASE CONTACT:
AUDRA B. FRIIS
AUDRA@PASCALECOMMUNICATIONS.COM
If this story or any other Ivanhoe story has impacted your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Marjorie Bekaert Thomas at mthomas@ivanhoe.com
