New type of Hydrogel helps to clean out kidney stones in the body

A new type of hydrogel developed by a German company can help doctors thoroughly treat kidney stones in a patient's body.

Hydrogel block with pieces of kidney stones inside.

Although some kidney stones can be treated with medication, the larger ones are often broken up with an endoscopic laser. In search of a more efficient solution, scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute of Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technology's startup Purenum have developed a new hydrogel that can remove the tiniest bits of gravel.

Currently, doctors often thread a long, thin endoscope into the urethra to the location of the stone mass. Thanks to an optical camera inside the tube, the surgeon uses an integrated laser to break the kidney stone into small pieces. Larger stones can be collected with the bare hands through a small picker, but smaller pieces are often left to pass naturally in the urine. However, they have the potential to become larger before being ejected from the body.

With the new hydrogel, after rupturing the stone with a laser and removing the larger pieces as usual, the doctor injects a blue-tinted liquid around the smaller stones. A yellow dye catalyst is then added, causing the blue liquid to form an elastic gel that envelops all small pebbles. Through the endoscopic method, the doctor can pick up the whole gel and remove it from the patient's body from the urethra. In the lab, they can dissolve the gel to retrieve a piece of stone for analysis.

After completing the clinical trial, the team hopes to bring this hydogel to the German market in the second quarter of this year as mediNiK-basic.