Seminar 4th February 2011 3 p.m. University of Southampton, Building 13 (Tizard) Room 3021
Shock Waves in Medicine
Robin Cleveland, Associate Professor
Boston University, Department of Mechanical Engineering
- Web page
- http://people.bu.edu/robinc/
- Categories
- Acoustics, Complex Systems
- Submitter
- Petrina Butler
Visitor from Boston University: Associate Professor Robin Cleveland
An overview of three applications of shock waves is presented.
Shock wave lithotripsy (SWL) has been in clinical use for more than 20 years.
In the United States it is used to treat more than 50% of kidney stone cases and has wide acceptance with patients because it is a non-invasive procedure.
Despite SWL’s enormous success there is no agreement as to how shock waves comminute stones.
There is also a general acceptance that shock waves lead to trauma to the soft tissue of the kidney.
Yet there has been little forward progress in developing lithotripters which provide comminution with less side-effects, indeed the original machine is still considered the gold standard.
The acoustic basis for this lack of progress will be described.
The last decade has seen the advent of new shock wave devices for treating principally musculoskeletal indications, such as plantar fasciitis, tennis elbow, and bone fractures that do not heal.
This is referred to as shock wave therapy (SWT).
The mechanisms by which SWT may work will be discussed.
Finally, shock waves are also effective at enhancing heating in focused-ultrasound surgery – as the formation of the shock wave results in excess absorption which in turn enhances high heating rates.
Simulations will be presented to show how the effect is very dependent on the source amplitude.
[Work supported in part by the US National Institutes of Health, the US National Science Foundation and the Whitaker Foundation].
ALL WELCOME
Contact
Susan Brindle sjb@isvr.soton.ac.uk