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Sound surgery: a bloodless scalpel

By Linda Marsa
November 2 2002

It sounds like something lifted from Star Trek - high-intensity sound waves are beamed through the skin, enabling doctors to perform surgery without incisions. But this futuristic scalpel may soon be available in operating theatres.

Scientists at Indiana University in Indianapolis have devised a tool that uses sound waves broadcast through a specially designed set of speakers to destroy diseased or cancerous tissue. The waves, which are at frequencies too high for people to hear, converge inside the body - an effect similar to using a magnifying glass to focus the sun's light on to a piece of paper.

"It burns at the focal point," says Narendra Sanghvi, an engineer who helped develop the technology. "Because the energy level is so high, the tissue gets extremely hot in less than a second, and the cells die instantaneously."

The device simultaneously beams lower frequency ultrasound waves to create a three-dimensional picture for doctors, akin to how ultrasound is used today to find tumours or to detect foetal abnormalities.

Consequently, the targeted region can be hit with pinpoint accuracy that rivals the precision of a scalpel, experts say, and the surrounding tissue is unharmed.

This scalpel-free surgical tool, called the Sonablate 500, may be the first high-intensity focused ultrasound device approved for use in the United States, and is awaiting clearance from the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of enlarged prostates. In future, it could be used to remove types of benign and malignant tumours.

Acoustic surgery, as it is known, has several advantages over conventional surgery, its proponents say. By not breaking the skin, risks of infection are diminished; there is no blood loss so transfusions are unnecessary; patients experience less pain; and recovery time is reduced.

"This has a lower complication rate and patients experience fewer side effects," says Dr Richard Bihrle, a urologist and member of the Indiana University ultrasound research team.

What made the technology even more practical was the discovery that the body breaks down and excretes tissue killed by the sound waves.

"We thought dead tissue had to be surgically removed," Sanghvi says, "but the body's own scavenging system" disposes of the debris.

Los Angeles Times



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