Even after a kidney stone is surgically removed, fragments often linger, and could spell more pain and problems for a patient.

Dr. Mathew Sorensen, a UW Medicine urologist, is targeting the issue with ultrasound waves. The waves push small kidney stone fragments into a part of the kidney where they can naturally be expelled. If they aren’t removed, these fragments could grow and threaten to require future surgeries. The treatment is currently at the center of a clinical trial performed at the Kidney Stone Center at UW Medical Center – Northwest.

“This would be an option to be able to, in the clinic without any anesthesia, have a procedure one or two times. [The procedure] takes about 20 minutes,” says Sorensen. “There's no other device or technology like this that's out there.”

In our news release, learn more about the ongoing trial for the treatment and NASA’s interest in the technology.