In situations when you cant cannot have general anaesthesia or do not want to have surgery, you may need to have non-surgical treatment such as dissolution or shock wave lithotripsy. Dissolution uses medicines to dissolve the gallstones but is not suitable for everyone and may take a very long time. Another method, shock-wave lithotripsy, uses high-energy sound waves to break gallstones into tiny fragments which can then be dissolved by medicines.
Attribution: BUPA