Nearly 100 kidney stones were removed recently from a patient at the UC Davis Medical Center in a procedure never performed previously in the United States. Dr. Michael Moran, a UCDMC urologist and assistant professor of urology at UC Davis took out the stones through a tiny incision above the patient's kidney using a procedure called endoscopic coagulum pyelolithotomy. After inserting an endoscope to view the procedure on a video monitor, Moran inserted a catheter to inject fibrin (liquid proteins that clot), entrapping the stones. During the two-hour procedure, Moran withdrew coagulum containing nearly 100 stones through the small incision. Moran says, "This procedure combines endoscopic surgery with some techniques used in open surgery." Dr. Hibbard E. Williams, dean of the UC Davis School of Medicine, says, "The use of coagulum together with percutaneous nephrolithotomy is a new advance in the treatment of multiple stones. This should allow us to be effective in trapping large numbers of stones at one time, which has been quite difficult to do in the past."