1. A procedure of comminuting or pulverizing a stone in the urinary bladder, or urethra, into small particles that can be passed out by urine: Lithotripsy was formerly done only surgically but it can now be accomplished by various noninvasive methods; such as, using a device that passes shock waves through a water-filled tub in which the patient sits.
2. The crumbling of a urinary calculus or gallstone within the body, followed at once by the washing out the fragments: The stone fragments that result from lithotripsy become small enough to be expelled during the urination process.

The breaking up of kidney stones by applying an electric discharge directly to them: The electrohydraulic lithotripsy crushes a stone, or stones, within the urinary system and the fragments are immediately removed by the patient urinating them out.