PURPOSE The cost-effectiveness of shock wave lithotripsy monotherapy, percutaneous nephrolithotomy and combined sandwich therapy in the treatment of staghorn calculi was examined. MATERIALS AND METHODS The cost-effective index, which estimates the average cost of making 1 patient stone-free, was computed for the various treatment options. Data for effectiveness of each therapy were used as av...

We report the first experimental observation of optical spatial shock-wave pairs. The shock waves consist of two coupled kink and antikink beams that remain locked to each other throughout propagation in a nonlinear diffusion-driven photorefractive crystal. These coupled shock-wave pairs move undistorted at angles that fall outside their original angular sector of propagation.

This work pioneers the atomistic modeling of the shock wave in background gas in picosecond laser-material interaction. It is found in the shock wave the compressed ambient gas region has a very uniform temperature distribution while the temperature decreases from the front of the plume to its end. The group velocity of atoms in the shock wave front is much smaller than the shock wave propagati...

BACKGROUND The upper limit of vulnerability (ULV) is the weakest shock at which ventricular fibrillation (VF) is not induced by a T-wave shock. This study tested the hypothesis that a vulnerability safety margin based on the ULV can be used as an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator implantation criterion. METHODS AND RESULTS Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators were implanted in 80 pati...

A review of the history, mechanism of action, and application of extracorporeal shock wave therapy for chronic plantar fasciitis is presented. The results of 40 feet treated with this modality are reviewed after a mean follow-up time of 8.4 months. All procedures were performed under intravenous sedation and local infiltrative anesthesia. An electrohydraulic shock wave with a mean of 20.6 kV co...

The purpose of this article was to evaluate and compare the efficacy of radial and focused shock wave therapies applied to treat tennis elbow. Patients with tennis elbow were randomized into two comparative groups: focused shock wave therapy (FSWT; n=25) and radial shock wave therapy (RSWT; n=25). Subjects in the FSWT and RSWT groups were applied with a focused shock wave (3 sessions, 2000 shoc...

Atomistic non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations of shock wave compression of quartz have been performed using the so-called BKS semi-empirical potential of van Beest, Kramer, and van Santen [Phys. Rev. B 43, 5068 (1991)] to construct the Hugoniot of quartz. Our scheme mimics the real world experimental set up by using a flyer-plate impactor to initiate the shock wave and is the first s...

The interaction of a laser-induced plasma with isotropic turbulence is studied using numerical simulations. The simulations use air as the working fluid and assume local thermodynamic equilibrium. The numerical method is fully spectral and uses a shockcapturing scheme in a corrector step. A model problem involving the effect of energy deposition on an isolated vortex is studied as a first step ...

PURPOSE We performed sham controlled evaluation of penile low intensity shock wave treatment effect in patients unable to achieve sexual intercourse using PDE5i (phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor). MATERIALS AND METHODS This prospective, randomized, double-blind, sham controlled study was done in patients with vasculogenic erectile dysfunction who stopped using PDE5i due to no efficacy. All ...