Re: Heat Treatment for Cancer, shows even more Promise.
Posted by Pasti on Apr 21, 2004 at 04:43
(67.69.243.154)Re: Heat Treatment for Cancer, shows even more Promise. (Amaranth Rose)
Amaranth,believe me,it died campared to the "waves" it made 10 years ago.And I have first hand info,my father is a urologist(I realize this thing with "daddy knows best" might sound pathetic, but after almost 40 years as a urlogist,I trust him much more than any article in the field).
It (lithotripsy, that is) lost ground (and fast I would say),to endoscopic techniques.Much cheaper and much more reliable.And when endoscopic techniques cannot be used,the good ol' blade is called in to do the job, since lithotripsy cannot be used either.
Lithotripsy is not successfull for all the kinds of stones a kidney can produce, and it cannot pulverize the stones to fine enough pieces to actually be eliminated relatively painless.The painless "peeing of sand" advertised by many urologists is very much a mith.Moreover,there were cases when it produced such sharp shards that they damaged the kidneys and emergency surgical intervention was required.
Hence it's limited use,to the displeasure of a lot of hospitals that have purchased the instrument,which at the time was worth a good deal of money.But you should have seen the advertising at the time (I was interested because of the ultrasound focusing through tissue issues). "La Revue du Praticien" was full of positive and encouraging results,also "Journal d'Urologie" and "Journal of Urology".It was almost funny,as if urology never even existed before this technique, in regard to kidney stones at least.It was the only time I have seen so many articles on the same topic in so few consecutive issues of dedicated journals.