Kidney stone treatment Commonly used treatment methods include extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL), percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PNL), ureteral chondroscopy, laparoscopic surgical stone extraction, and open surgery. All of these treatment options are available for clinical use, however, for a specific patient, a treatment option with relatively less damage and lower complication rate should be chosen depending on the specific location of the stone in the kidney. Over the past 20 years, as experience with successful treatment of kidney stones by endoluminal urologic surgery has increased, open surgery is now only available for a few specific cases. Among them, the main ones are those patients with stones that require simultaneous anatomical reconstruction. On the other hand, despite the advantages of laparoscopic stone extraction surgery in reducing the degree of surgical injury, it is not yet the standard treatment for kidney stones. ESWL has become the current standard treatment for kidney stones ≤20 mm in diameter or ≤300 mm2 in surface area because of its advantages of less trauma, fewer complications, and no need for anesthesia. For larger stones, ESWL can also successfully fragment stones, but PNL can be used to fragment stones faster and more effectively. It is important to emphasize that PNL requires considerable operator expertise and experience. The disadvantages of using ESWL for the treatment of large kidney stones are the need for repeated treatments and the tendency for stone fragments to remain after treatment. Therefore, it must be used with caution. PNL is recommended for the treatment of this group of patients. Residual stones can develop into new stones, but some reports suggest that this risk is actually quite low. Patients with stone fragments remaining after treatment should be followed up. Interventional lithotripsy by percutaneous puncture can completely remove the residual fragments of infected stones and reduce the risk of stone recurrence. This treatment can also be used as an adjunctive treatment for cystine stones. For uric acid stones, oral litholytic drugs are the treatment of choice. In addition, lithotripsy followed by lithotripsy improves the rate of lithotripsy and is therefore indicated for patients with larger uric acid stones.