Cary Medical Center is the first hospital in northern Maine to offer a non-surgical treatment for kidney stones call Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy (ESWL). Using ultrasound technology, a series of electronic shock waves are externally delivered directly to the stone to break it up so that the patient can pass the stone through their urinary tract. This procedure is performed in one-day surgery and generally takes less than an hour. The patient is usually placed under a fast- acting anesthesia in the operating room and may spend a few hours in recovery after the procedure. ESWL does not require any incisions and results in a less painful and quicker recovery. The patient will likely only have a very small bruise, about the size of a quarter, on their side where the lithotripsy was performed.