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Roughly 2% to 3% of the world population suffers from kidney or urethral stones during their lifetime. Urinary calculi are responsible for 10% of urological hospital admissions worldwide. Although urinary calculi may be eliminated naturally by the body, natural elimination is frequently accompanied by considerable pain and very often by serious complications, such as obstruction and infection of the urinary tract.

 

Since its introduction in clinical practice nearly 20 years ago, SWL has become the standard treatment for urinary calculi. SWL consists of fragmenting calculi within the body using extra-corporeal shockwaves without any surgery. The Company believes that the market for lithotripters includes both buyers looking for a sophisticated, higher-priced machine, generally hospitals and larger urology clinics, and buyers looking for simpler and less expensive machines, typically smaller clinics.

The Company believes that after a period of fast growth in the mid-1980s and early 1990s, the market for lithotripters is now mature and has become primarily a replacement and service and maintenance market.
The Company believes that companies with a large installed base of SWL lithotripters will be most successful in the replacement market. Consequently, the Company intends to capitalize on its share of the installed base of SWL lithotripters to gain a significant position in the replacement market for those machines.


The Company expects the SWL business to continue to contribute to the Company's financial results despite the mature nature of the market, due to revenues from maintenance contracts and demand for replacement machines.

  More information about the Company's UDS division, click here  

 
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