Extracorporeal and intracorporeal lithotripsy of salivary gland stones: basic investigations.

The traditional treatment for sialolithiasis was extirpation of the affected gland. It is now known, however, that salivary gland function can recover completely after stone extraction alone. Since the mid-1980s, much thought has been given to treating sialolithiasis with extracorporeal or intracorporeal shock waves in a manner similar to that used for urinary tract or biliary tract stones, and this has been implemented successfully. This article provides an overview of the various methods of extracorporeal and intracorporeal lithotripsy that have been used or proposed for salivary calculi to date, considering the advantages and disadvantages of each of the techniques.