LithoVue Empower Lets One Person Retrieve Kidney Stones
Boston Scientific has unveiled a new kidney stone retrieval device that allows the urologist to control the ureteroscope and basket that captures the stone, at the same time. This was previously a two person job, demanding close coordination and healthy communication between the clinicians.
The LithoVue Empower Retrieval Deployment Device fits Boston Scientific’s LithoVue Single-Use Digital Flexible Ureteroscope and uses compatible retrieval baskets to reach the target.
The company is touting the results of a study just presented at the World Congress of Endourology, which showed that indeed surgeons are able to do stone retrievals themselves in comparable time as when doing the same the conventional way.
“The LithoVue Empower Device is a unique tool that can improve ureteroscopic stone treatment as it puts the process of stone manipulation entirely into the hands of the surgeon,” said Dr. Brian Matlaga, the Stephens Professor of Urology at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and director of stone disease, James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute and presenting author of the data. “Ultimately, the LithoVue Empower Device introduces a novel efficiency into ureteroscopic stone surgery, as it makes it simpler for the urologist to pick up and move a stone – a historic source of frustration for this procedure.”