Apparatus for the disintegration of calculi

Abstract

An apparatus for disintegrating calculi situated in the body of a life form has a shock wave generator and an examination apparatus for locating the calculi within the body. The examination apparatus includes at least one image memory in which an image of a portion of the body, including the calculi to be disintegrated, is stored. A comparator compares the stored image with an image chronologically following the store image to determine any movement of the calculi which may have occurred between the generation of the compared images. The position of a shock wave generator relative to the calculi is set based on the stored image, and the shock wave generator is energized to disintegrate the calculi upon the recognition of a subsequent image most closely corresponding to the stored image.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.