Can gallstones be lithotripped outside the body?

  Extracorporeal lithotripsy is the abbreviation, the complete should be called extracorporeal impact lithotripsy. 1984 began to be used in clinical application, widely used in the treatment of urinary stones. Due to the anatomical characteristics of the urinary system, as long as the stones are crushed, they can be expelled from the body with the help of exercise and more water.  However, even if the gallbladder stones are crushed, even if they are less than or equal to 2mm, they will not be expelled by themselves.  However, the best contraction of the gallbladder is in the morning after eating, due to the physiological response, prompting the gallbladder to start contracting for a few minutes. If the water in the gutter is stagnant, the gutter will easily have deposits of silt, which means that the bile in the gallbladder is very limited, unlike the kidneys, which have urine discharge all the time, allowing stones to be flushed and effectively discharged.  According to medical data, some hospitals choose extracorporeal impact lithotripsy for patients with gallbladder stones, but as a result, the stones are often broken and stuck in the neck of the gallbladder or the mouth of the common bile duct, causing bile duct obstruction, resulting in sphincter spasm, causing biliary colic and biliary tract infection.  Moreover, although lithotripsy can break the stones, it can also damage the surrounding tissues, bleeding, liver damage and skin damage, which can bring new pain to the patient; complicate biliary colic, cholecystitis, pancreatitis, etc., causing adverse consequences and unnecessary financial burden to the patient.  As the saying goes, “the liver and the gallbladder are together, even if the lithotripsy is taken, if there are other conditions in the liver, such as liver cysts, liver hemangiomas, etc., then once the lithotripsy will cause the rupture of the cysts and hemangiomas in the liver, causing hemorrhage and endangering life safety. The stimulation of the gallbladder wall and bile duct wall by the impact on the gallbladder can cause gallbladder rupture and inflammation, which can lead to serious complications.  Therefore, gallbladder stones cannot be treated with extracorporeal lithotripsy due to congenital physiological reasons.