Difficulties in laparoscopic surgery for urinary stones

Stone disease has been a great challenge for surgeons through history and in fact one of the first surgeries performed in human has been for stone. For centuries stone disease has been a common health problem and traditional open surgery has been practiced to manage problems caused for human by urinary stones [1]. Today, stone disease is still common, but the pattern of practice in stone management has been revolutionized in the last decades. In the era of minimally invasive surgery, open surgery for stone disease is obsolete and almost abandoned [2]. The biggest blow to open surgery came about when extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (SWL) was applied successfully by Chaussey in Berlin [3]. While, percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) and ureteroscopic lithotripsy were another great steps forward and today have major roles in managing large renal and ureteral stone disease in most of the continents of the world. In this chapter the authors focus on the role, scope and difficulties during laproscopic stone surgery.