Device to Treat Kidney Stones to Be Tested at Hoag Hospital

Medstone International Inc. said it is installing a shock-wavetreatment device for kidney stones for product testing at Hoag Memorial Hospital in Newport Beach.

With a Medstone device already installed in a Chicago medical center, the Costa Mesa company said it is the only American firm to obtain FDA approval to test a dry shockwave lithotripter in a clinical setting. Other such systems require the patient to be immersed in a liquid that conducts the sound waves.

The Medstone device, and others like it, eliminate the need for kidney stone surgery by aiming beams of acoustical shock waves through the body to disintegrate kidney stones into particles that pass through a patient’s urinary system.

Dr. Richard Penfil, Medstone’s president and co-founder, said he expects about 50 patients a week to be treated by the shock-wave device at Hoag once installation is completed this week.