Methods and Apparatus for Disintegration of Urinary Calculi Under Direct Vision

This invention relates to methods and apparatus for disintegration of urinary calculi under direct vision and particularly to such method and apparatus using ultrasonic apparatus jointly with direct visual observation of the disintegration of the urinary calculi.

The number of hospital admissions for removal of urinary calculi or stones averages about 0.1% of the population. This means that about a quarter million people or more per year are admitted in the United States for removal of kidney stones. In some cases where the stones are quite small, the stones may be passed without hospital care. However, larger stones and stones which are associated with obstruction or infection of the urinary tract must be removed to prevent damage. Historically, when the stone can be reached with mechanical devices and removed by manipulation this has been done, however, stones high in the ureter or held in the kidney were removed by open surgery.

In U.S. Pat. No. 3,830,240, Antonevich and Goodfriend proposed the use of an ultrasonic method and apparatus for removal of stones. The apparatus and method of that patent involved inserting a catheter carrying a coupling member through the ureter until it abutted the stone and then subjecting the coupling member to ultrasonic vibration with its free end against the stone to cause it to disintegrate the stone. A problem with this method and apparatus is that there is no direct visual observation of the stone during the disintegration step.

Prior to the inventions of Antonevich and Goodfriend the idea of vibratory impacting of urinary calculi in the bladder had been proposed. Machines using longitudinal vibrations through wire wave guides into the bladder had been tried but were too slow to be practical, difficult to control and created excessive heat.

The present invention solves these problems by providing an apparatus and method by means of which the kidney stone in the ureter would be machined into very small pieces under direct vision of the operator. This permits much faster disintegration and less chance of error and perforation of ureter in removal of the ureteral stones or stone.

We have discovered that ureteral stones can be quickly machined into small fragments under direct vision by placing a ureterscope which is essentially a two lumen catheter having at least a pair of side-by-side passages extending the length of the ureterscope into the ureter containing a stone to be removed with one end abutting the calculi, inserting a coupling member through one of the passageways of the catheter until one end abuts the stone while the other end extends outside the free end of the catheter, providing an optical system into another of the passageways of the catheter with an operative connection to an optical viewing means at the free end of the catheter, subjecting the coupling member to ultrasonic vibrations to produce longitudinal and transverse vibration at the end abutting the stone and moving the coupling member into the catheter to cause it to operate on the stone under direct vision through the viewing member through the optical system. Preferably, the optical system is a part of a ureterscope structure, however, the system could be based upon a fiber optics flexible system. An ultrasonic transducer is attached to the wave guide at its free end outside the catheter. The wave guide is preferably a wire. Preferably, the work or cutting area is irrigated or cooled by passing flushing fluid through the catheter around the wave guide in said one passageway or lumen.

In the foregoing general description of our invention we have set out certain objects, purposes and advantages of this invention. Other objects, purposes and advantages will be apparent from a consideration of the following description and the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates the apparatus of this invention in place in a human urinary tract and in place against a stone in a ureter;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the apparatus of FIG. 1 showing the catheter end at the kidney stone; and

FIG. 3 is a second embodiment of apparatus according to this invention.

Referring to the drawings we have illustrated a catheter 10 having side-by-side generally parallel lumen or passageways 11 and 12 extending from one end to the other of the catheter. One lumen 11 carries an optical system 13 which extends from one end of the catheter which is inserted through the urethra 14 and bladder 15 of a patient, into the ureter 16 until it contacts stone 18 to be removed. The optical system 13 consists of a means of conducting light from a light source 19 to illuminate the stone 18 and a lens system 20 which is connected to a viewing means 22' through which the operating surgeon may view the area of the stone being machined. A wave guide or coupling member in the form of a wire 23 is inserted through the other lumen 12 of catheter 10 until one end contacts stone 18. The other end extends out of the free end of catheter 10 outside the body of the patient and is attached to a transducer 24 by any well known conventional means such as a set screw.

With one end of the catheter 10 and the wave guide 23 and optical system 13 in fixed position against the stone, the light source is activated and with the operator observing the work or machining area of the stone 18 the transducer 24 is activated to cause the wave guide 23 to act on the stone with transverse and longitudinal motion of the end of the wave guide to machine away or disintegrate the stone. A channel 21 is provided to lumen 12 to provide irrigation and cooling of the wave guide.

In the embodiments of FIG. 3 we have illustrated a similar system in which like parts from FIGS. 1 and 2 carry the same number with a prime sign. In this system, one lumen 31 carries a bundle of optical fibres 33 which extend from one end of the catheter to the other. One end of fibres 33 is adjacent the stone to be removed while the other end extends out the free end of catheter passageway 31 and is divided into two groups of fibres 39 and 40. One group 39 is attached to a light source 41 to illuminate the stone. The other group 40 is connected to viewing means 22' through which the surgeon may view the stone.

In the foregoing specification we have set out certain preferred practices and embodiments of our invention, however, the invention may be otherwise embodied within the scope of the following claims.