More than 90 persons successfully underwent the Extra corporeal Shock Wave Lithotripter (ESWL) treatment for kidney stones in Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital (CMCH).

According to Dr. R. Soundravel, Resident Medical Officer, CMCH, EWSL was introduced in hospital last year. “This is a new method which uses shock waves to break down the kidney stones in just one second. The stones later comes out of the body through urine. The procedure does not require any hospitalisation,” he said.

“Earlier open surgeries were performed to remove the stones, which required at least two weeks of hospitalisation. But in ESWL, the patient can resume normal activities the very next day,” Dr. Soundravel added.

While private hospitals charge Rs. 40,000 for the procedure, a patient can pay just Rs. 5000 at CMCH, he said and added that ESWL was already available in Chennai and Madurai Government Hospitals.

“The Government should further reduce the cost so that even poor people can get treated by EWSL method,” said L. Rajkumar, a relative of a patient.

Patients from Nilgiris, Tirupur and Erode Government Hospitals are referred to CMCH for ESWL. “More than 600 out patients come to CMCH. Most of them are from Government Hospitals from the neighbouring places.

The Government should improve infrastructure in those hospitals also so that people get good treatment there itself,” said A. Arokiyasamy, social activist.