FTV reporter went to interview Dr. Chen Chi-Zung, Director of Urological Department, DOH Hualien Hospital presenting Lite-Med built, free of anesthesia or pain killer ESWL to the public. Patient treated with this equipment is free of any additional charge.

Dr. Chen pointed out, “ This ESWL that combines X-Ray and Ultrasound functions is able to minimize the occurrence of shock wave hit on organs around kidney by mistake, thus reduces the chance of complication. Imitating missile tracking and locking system, it help to identify which shining, white point is the stone to be targeted. It will then follow the move of kidney to shift the target point and lock the stone accurately. The hitting rate is only a little bit less than 100%. This is a exceptionally good news for urinary duct calculus patient, which accounted for about 10% of total population of this country.

During the interview, Ms. Hsieh, a patient who has a number of stone breaking treatments before, said “ I have my kidney stone broken in other hospital, but it was not cleaned totally and I had once almost my kidney taken off.” She continued, “This is my 5th treatment of the same kind. This is the best one and I can go right back to work without being affected by the treatment process.

DOH Hualien Hospital installed this domestic developed Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripter System at end of year before last year (end of 2004) and in just one year (2005), it treated close to one thousand urinary duct calculus. The safe and effective treatment has won wide acceptance and recognition.