Over a 34-month period (1989-1991), 791 patients were diagnosed at endoscopic retrograde cholangiography to have bile duct stones. All patients underwent sphincterotomy and attempted extraction by Dormia basket. This was successful in 683 patients (86%). The remaining 108 patients with "difficult stones" (mean age 72 years) underwent mechanical, electrohydraulic or extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy according to the following algorithm: (1) Mechanical lithotripsy for stones which could not be extracted after entrapment in the Dormia basket (n = 33); (2) peroral cholangioscopic electrohydraulic lithotripsy for stones which could not be engaged in the Dormia basket (n = 65); or (3) extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy for intrahepatic stones (n = 10). Stone fragmentation and clearance was successful in all patients treated by mechanical lithotripsy, was unsuccessful in one patient submitted to electrohydraulic lithotripsy due to inability to insert the cholangioscope into the bile duct and failed in 3 patients treated by extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy. Overall, 95% of difficult bile duct stones refractory to conventional endoscopic basket extraction were removed using the above lithotripsy techniques. There were no serious procedure-related complications.