Anesthesia for extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy in spinal cord injury patients

Patients with chronic spinal cord injuries (SCI) develop numerous bodily and organ dysfunctions. One common sequelae seen is the development of nephrolithiasis. Today, most renal and ureteral calculi can be disintegrated noninvasively with extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL), and the SCI patient will frequently present for this procedure. The purposes of the authors study were: 1) to determine if there were different physiologic responses between normal and SCI patients undergoing ESWL; and 2) to compare regional and general anesthesia for ESWL in patients with chronic SCI.