Plymouth NHS Trust radiographers pioneer EWSL day-case service

Published: 24 September 2020 Government & NHS

Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, has launched a new extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (EWSL) service using a fixed-site lithotripter to allow all treatment of urinary stones and the majority of imaging follow-ups to be undertaken in one place.


Urinary stone treatment is mostly performed by mobile lithotripters but the efficacy of treatment is lower than fixed site services. The hospital is using the Storz Modulith SLX-F2 Connect, the first model to allow full KUB X-rays to be performed on the same equipment.


Sam Crompton, a urology specialist radiographer at University Hospitals Plymouth Trust, has been involved with the development of the service.


He said: ‘Patients can attend and have simple analgesics such as diclofenac or co-codamol and remain in the department for around 90 minutes, before returning home.


‘This is a very favourable option for patients as they will not require a general anaesthetic, it should free up theatre time, and reduce the amount of bed stays required by avoiding patients being admitted to the surgical wards from the emergency department or to recover post-operatively.’


Trust chief executive Ann James tweeted a picture of the team and their new equipment: ‘Great way to end the week... this is the first of this type in the country here in Plymouth ! A lithotripter which supports day cases rather than surgery for very complex stones - which are also very painful’.