(WebMD) Pulverizing kidney stones with shock waves raises a person’s risk of diabetes and high blood pressure, a new study shows.
In the early 1980s, getting a kidney stone removed often meant painful open surgery. Then came shock wave lithotripsy. This revolutionary technology uses sonic waves to blast kidney stones into tiny grains of sand. No surgery is needed.
It has always seemed to be safe. But now there’s disturbing new data from a Mayo Clinic study. The study appears in the May issue of the Journal of Urology.
Shock Wave Damage
The study compared kidney stone patients treated in 1985 with shock wave lithotripsy to patients given other nonsurgical kidney stone treatments that same year. Nineteen years later, the shock wave patients were nearly four times more likely to get diabetes. And, if both kidneys were treated, the patients were 47 percent more likely to have high blood pressure.
It’s not yet clear how shock wave treatment might cause these problems, says researcher Amy E. Krambeck, M.D. What seems to be happening is collateral damage from the shock waves.
“The theory is that the shear forces related to shock wave lithotripsy can cause tissue damage,” Krambeck tells WebMD. “Damage to the pancreas could put patients at risk for diabetes.”