With the Swiss LithoClast ® , EMS has set new standards of safety in endoscopic lithotripsy. The first prototype for intracorporeal disintegration of urinary calculi was developed by EMS over a five years period of collaboration with the University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV).
The Swiss LithoClast ® is a contact-type intracorporeal lithotripter which delivers pneumatically generated energy directed onto the stone. The following simplified drawing explains the working principle:

The projectile in the handpiece - which corresponds to the left ball in the drawing - is accelerated to high speed by means of precisely controlled bursts of compressed air. It is guided within precision tolerances of a few micrometers in the handpiece.
When it hits the probe installed in the handpiece in the same way as the first ball hits the series of subsequent balls, its kinetic impact energy is converted to a mechanical strain. The energy is transferred from one ball to the other or, as in the case of the hand-piece, propagates along the probe through to the calculus. In the same way the last ball of the series moves, the tip of the probe moves accordingly thus hitting the calculus. Transmission occurs as a result of the elastic deformation of the probe itself. By comparison, urinary stones are much more brittle in nature. When energy is transmitted from the LITHOCLAST probe to the calculus, the result is disintegration of the calculus. As a rule, successful disintegration occurs after only a few pressure wave impacts.
This working principle enables the construction of flexible probes.


SWISS LITHOCLAST ® STANDARD-HANDPIECE - COMPRESSED AIR ACCELERATES
A PROJECTILE TO GENERATE A SPECIFIC KINETIC ENERGY.