Table 1
| Therapy Method | Therapeutic Outcome | Bioeffect Mechanism | Device Characteristics | Device Characteristics |
| Applicator | Frequency | Delivery | ||
| Unfocused beam | tissue warming | heating | portable hand-held | continuous or repeated bursts |
| Hyperthermia | cancer therapy | regional heating | multi-element applicator | 1 hour |
| HIFU | uterine fibroid ablation | thermal lesion | computer directed | long bursts |
Full Answer
How effective is ultrasound therapy?
- Adequate controls, including placebo treatment and randomized group allocation.
- Adequate blinding of observers, subjects, and therapists to group allocation.
- Adequate description of treatment variables (including checking of machine output).
- Meaningful outcome measures (ie, valid for patient problem being treated).
What are the advantages of ultrasound?
What are the advantages of ULTRASOUND?
- No ionising radiation
- Portability, facilitated by laptop sized ultrasound machines.
- Simplicity, although initially US may be intimidating the common blocks e.g. femoral are readily mastered by most anaesthetists.
- Using US the nerve itself can be imaged
What are side effects of ultra therapy?
but be just as effective
- 'Kinder' cancer treatment. From lower doses to less surgery, here are some of the ways cancer treatments are becoming kinder to patients.
- Reducing doses of chemotherapy. ...
- Gentler drug therapy. ...
- Shorter treatment. ...
- Less surgery. ...
What are the benefits of ultrasound therapy for pain?
What is Ultrasound Therapy Used For?
- Tendonitis: Ultrasound therapy is quite effective to treat chronic tendon pain. ...
- Muscle sprain: This therapy can reduce muscle sprain and relax muscles.
- Osteoarthritis: The deep heat of ultrasound responds well with some chronic issues such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid, and others.
What are the benefits of ultrasound?
Benefits of UltrasoundThey are generally painless and do not require needles, injections, or incisions.Patients aren't exposed to ionizing radiation, making the procedure safer than diagnostic techniques such as X-rays and CT scans. ... Ultrasound captures images of soft tissues that don't show up well on X-rays.More items...•
How often should you do ultrasound therapy?
According to Rosenzweig, “Therapists use ultrasound anywhere from six to 12 sessions – it's part of the patient's therapy, so therapists might do it for five minutes, then perhaps twice a week anywhere from thee weeks to six weeks.
What are the side effects of ultrasound therapy?
Depending on the temperature gradients, the effects from ultrasound exposure can include mild heating, coagulative necrosis, tissue vaporization, or all three. Ultrasonic cavitation and gas body activation are closely related mechanisms which depend on the rarefactional pressure amplitude of ultrasound waves.
Does ultrasound therapy reduce inflammation?
Ultrasound (US) therapy is used to reduce pain and inflammation and to accelerate healing after soft tissue injury.
Can you overdo ultrasound therapy?
Benefits of Ultrasound Physical Therapy Therapeutic ultrasound has no known harmful effects when done right by your therapist. The therapy will help alleviate body pain in the affected areas.
What does ultrasound do for muscles?
Ultrasound is a passive modality, meaning a treatment your physcial therapist administers. It is a supplement to the primary treatment (eg, therapeutic stretching, exercise). Ultrasound can help relax tight muscles that are sore, and warms muscles and soft tissues, which increases circulation that helps healing.
Can ultrasound damage organs?
There have been no reported cases of adverse reactions from the performance of medical ultrasounds on humans (Orenstein 2011). As recently as December 2014, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated that there is a lack of evidence of any harm due to ultrasound imaging (FDA 2014).
Is it OK to have ultrasound every week?
As with many tests related to pregnancy, there is some disparity among medical centers about how often a woman should have ultrasounds, especially late in her pregnancy. During the third trimester, some offices perform ultrasounds every two weeks, while others (like ours) perform one every three to four weeks.
Is ultrasound good for arthritis?
Ultrasound therapy can be useful in repair cartilage damage caused by arthritis. A study (Low Intensity Ultrasound as a Supporter of Cartilage Regeneration...) found that ultrasound therapy allows oxygen to be delivered to the injured tissue of the joints facilitating tissue repair.
Does ultrasound help nerve pain?
Ultrasound therapy has been shown to be very effective in resolving inflammation and reducing pain, while promoting more rapid healing. Ultrasound therapy works by two mechanisms: thermal and mechanical.
Can ultrasound break up scar tissue?
One of the many benefits of ultrasound therapy is breaking up scar tissue caused by injuries or surgery. Scar tissue can cause pain and restrict joint movement. Ultrasound helps by using high-frequency sound waves to break the fibres of the scar tissue down into smaller fragments.
Can an ultrasound pick up scar tissue?
Ultrasound allows imaging of minimal scar formation, early detection of myositis ossificans and cysts, and dynamic evaluation of small muscle hernias.
How does ultrasound help with healing?
The deep heat from ultrasound can help with healing the deep tissues. It affects the the cells of soft tissues and their metabolism. Not only that , but these cells will often become much more receptive to the healing fluids, and these fluids are found in the increase in blood flow that the ultrasound generates. Ultrasounds also can help with treating lesions on soft tissue and surgical wounds.
Why do people use ultrasounds?
A lot of people know that ultrasound is used for looking at babies and also for diagnosing illnesses.
What is the purpose of ultrasound heat?
This means skilled therapists are able to send the heat right where it should go. 2. Deeper Stretch. That deep heat that is being generated with the ultrasound is able to help with relaxing a strained or tense muscle. This helps with minimizing muscle spasms that often comes with injury or tension.
How does ultrasound therapy work?
Deeper Heat. Ultrasound therapy provides deep heat. Sound waves cause vibrations and when the tissues vibrate, this will increase friction to your molecular level, which means the targeted tissue’s temperature rises.
Does ultrasound help scar tissue?
The ultrasound waves cause soft tissue cells to have tiny vibrations. These types of vibrations affect fibers which are responsible for forming scar tissue.
Can ultrasound therapy help with pain?
The good thing about it is unlike other types of therapy it doesn’t cause any type of pain. If you have a chronic pain condition or you have had surgery, you might want to ask your doctor about ultrasound therapy. It might be able to help you with your pain and your recovery.
What is ultrasound therapy?
US has been used in physical and occupational therapy to promote healing, decrease pain, reduce swelling, remodel scar tissue, and decrease inflammation.
How does ultrasound work?
Ultrasound works by converting energy to ultrasound energy (sound waves) with an alternating current that causes vibration. These sound waves cause the molecules in a small area of tissue to vibrate and heat tissue.
What diagnosis or injuries benefit from ultrasound?
Most of the evidence today for US in hand therapy have mixed outcomes, but much of the research has shown that US is most beneficial for treating carpal tunnel, tendonitis, and scar remodeling.
Contraindications for ultrasound
According to these studies, the benefits of ultrasound continue to favor injuries related to inflammation, carpal tunnel and possibly scar remodeling.
What is Ultrasound Therapy used for?
Ultrasound Therapy is a treatment used to promote tissue healing and relieve pain. Whilst ultrasound is not effective for all chronic pain conditions, it may help in reducing the pain if you have the following conditions, to name a few:
Will I feel anything?
Some people may feel a mild pulsing whilst using the device, whilst others may feel a slight warmth in the skin. Do not be surprised if you feel none of the above, apart from the cold gel on your skin.
What else is Ultrasound Therapy used for?
Ultrasound therapy is beginning to make itself very well known in the beauty industry, the reason, prodigious benefits for facial treatment and some of these are:
What is the price of an Ultrasound Therapy Machine?
Portable Ultrasound Devices are £115 for the 1MHZ version and the 3MHZ version (Most Popular Choices)
Why do we use ultrasound?
But, it's most commonly used to solve problems in muscle tissue. The heating effect of the ultrasound helps to heal muscle pain and reduces chronic inflammation. . Ultrasound also helps tissue fluids flow better — which means that more lymph passes through the tissues.
Why is ultrasound not used in physical therapy?
Therapeutic ultrasound is not used for problems near a pregnant woman’s womb because it could put the pregnancy at risk. It's also generally not used over the spine, eyes, pacemakers, other implants, and areas with active infections. Benefits of Ultrasound Physical Therapy. Ultrasound physical therapy has many advantages:
How does ultrasound work?
How Ultrasound Physical Therapy Works. The ultrasound machine works by sending an electric current through crystals found in the ultrasound probe — also known as the ultrasound wand. The probe vibrates, causing waves to travel through the skin to the body underneath. The waves transfer energy to the tissues to cause the desired effects.
What is thermal ultrasound?
Thermal ultrasound therapy is used to treat stretch pain, soft tissue pain, and other musculoskeletal issues. It can also be adapted to treat advanced issues like uterine fibroids, prostate cancer, and skin problems. .
What is ultrasound in 2021?
Medically Reviewed by Dan Brennan, MD on June 23, 2021. Ultrasound — or ultrasonography — is an imaging technique used not just during pregnancy but also for many medical procedures. Ultrasound physical therapy is a branch of ultrasound, alongside diagnostic ultrasound and pregnancy imaging. It's used to detect and treat various musculoskeletal ...
What determines how ultrasound physical therapy is done?
The frequency and intensity of the ultrasound, the duration of the procedure, and the area of its application all determine how ultrasound physical therapy is done.
Is ultrasound painless?
The procedure is generally painless and easy to do. You'll be awake during the whole process without the need for anesthetics or pain relievers. Therapeutic ultrasound has no known harmful effects when done right by your therapist. The therapy will help alleviate body pain in the affected areas.
What is Ultrasound?
Ultrasound is considered an effective way of physical therapy that produces high-frequency sound waves and therapeutic heat. In terms of ultrasound, equipment produces high-frequency sounds waves via a round-headed probe. The sound waves penetrate the deep tissues and produce heat.
How Does Ultrasound Therapy Work?
The process of ultrasound can be administrated by the ultrasound doctor or a physical therapist. Ultrasound waves are applied directly to the patient’s skin with a layer of protective gel. This hypoallergenic gel creates a friction-free surface. Usually, an ultrasound therapy session takes around 3 to 5 minutes.
Benefits of Ultrasound Therapy
There are certain health benefits of ultrasound therapy. The therapist depends on this process more than other therapy.
Types of Ultrasound Therapy
Two types of ultrasound therapy can be used; thermal and non-thermal. The basic difference between these two ultrasounds processes is the rate of the sound waves. For both purposes, the therapist uses a transducer head.
Is Ultrasound Therapy Safe?
Ultrasound therapy is a safe and pain-free process that anybody can go through under the supervision of a doctor or licensed physical therapist. In few cases, patients feel a tingling sensation on the application area for few minutes, and the sensation goes away quickly.
What is Ultrasound Therapy Used For?
Few physical conditions are specially treated by ultrasound therapy. For sports injuries, tendonitis, lower back pain, frozen shoulder, and other ligaments and tendon injury, ultrasound therapy is effective and helpful. Recently, ultrasound therapy is being used for breaking calcified stones.
FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions
Though it is a non-invasive and safe process, you may feel the temperature only. You may also feel a tingling sensation just during the session, which is not unbearable. Due to less contraindication, most therapists consider this process as one of the safe therapy among other physical therapy.
Why is ultrasound therapy important?
One of the greatest proposed benefits of ultrasound therapy is that it is thought to reduce the healing time of certain soft tissue injuries. Ultrasound is thought to accelerate the normal resolution time of the inflammatory process by attracting more mast cells to the site of injury.
What is ultrasound therapy?
Ultrasound Therapy. Ultrasound therapy has been used as an electrotherapy treatment modality by therapists over the last 50 years.It involves passing high frequency sound waves into soft tissue.
How are ultrasound waves produced?
Ultrasonic waves or sound waves of a high frequency that is not audible to the human ear are produced by means of mechanical vibration in the metal treatment head of the ultrasound machine. The treatment head is then moved over the surface of the skin in the region of the injury transmitting the energy into the tissues.
How does ultrasound affect collagen?
As the ultrasound waves pass from the treatment head into the skin they cause the vibration of the surrounding tissues, particularly those that contain collagen. This increased vibration leads to the production of heat within the tissue. In most cases, this cannot be felt by the patient themselves. This increase in temperature may cause an increase in the extensibility of structures such as ligaments, tendons, scar tissue, and fibrous joint capsules. In addition, heating may also help to reduce pain and muscle spasm and promote the healing process.
Why do you put ultrasound gel on your skin?
When sound waves come into contact with air it causes a dissipation of the waves, and so a special ultrasound gel is placed on the skin to ensure maximal contact between the treatment head and the surface of the skin and to provide a medium through with the sound waves can travel. Ultrasound can also be applied underwater which is also a medium ...
How long does it take for an ultrasonic to work?
This is moved continuously over the skin for approximately 3-5 mins. Treatments may be repeated 1-2 times daily in more acute injuries and less frequently in chronic cases.
Why use lower frequency?
Simply speaking lower frequency application provides a greater depth of penetration and so is used in cases where the injured tissue is suspected to be deeply situated. Conversely, higher frequency doses are used for structures that are closer to the surface of the skin.
Why is ultrasound used in the body?
Ultrasound is often used to provide deep heating to soft tissue structures in the body. Deep heating tendons, muscles, or ligaments increases circulation to those tissues, which is thought to help the healing process. Increasing tissue temperature with ultrasound is also used to help decrease pain.
What is therapeutic ultrasound?
Therapeutic ultrasound is a treatment modality commonly used in physical therapy. It is used to provide deep heating to soft tissues in the body. These tissues include muscles, tendons, joints, and ligaments.
How does ultrasound work?
Ultrasound is performed with a machine that has an ultrasound transducer (sound head). A small amount of gel is applied to the particular body part; then your physical therapist slowly moves the sound head in a small circular direction on your body.
What are the contraindications for ultrasound?
There are some instances where you should not use ultrasound at all. These contraindications to ultrasound may include: 1 Over open wounds 2 Over metastatic lesions or any active area of cancer 3 Over areas of decreased sensation 4 Over parts of the body with metal implants, like in a total knee replacement of lumbar fusion 5 Near or over a pacemaker 6 Pregnancy 7 Around the eyes, breasts, or sexual organs 8 Over fractured bones 9 Near or over an implanted electrical stimulation device 10 Over active epiphyses in children 11 Over an area of acute infection
Is ultrasound a passive treatment?
Many people argue that ultrasound can have a negative effect on your physical therapy by needlessly prolonging your care. Ultrasound is a passive treatment .
Can ultrasound be used for rotator cuff tears?
Generally speaking, any soft-tissue injury in the body may be a candidate for ultrasound therapy. Your physical therapist may use ultrasound for low back pain, neck pain, rota tor cuff te ars, knee meniscus tears, or ankle sprains.
Can a physical therapist use ultrasound?
Your physical therapist may use ultrasound to help improve your condition. If so, be sure to ask about the need for ultrasound and possible risks. Also, be sure that you are also performing an active self-care exercise program in the PT clinic and at home. If you are actively engaged in your rehabilitation, you can ensure that you have a safe and rapid recovery back to normal function.
What are the biological effects of ultrasound?
Other potential mechanisms for biological effects of ultrasound include the direct action of the compressional, tensile, and shear stresses. In addition, second-order phenomena, which depend on transmitted ultrasound energy, include radiation pressure, forces on particles and acoustic streaming.
What frequency is ultrasound used for?
Low power ultrasound of about 1 MHz fre quency has been widely applied since the 1950s for physical therapy in conditions such as tendinitis or bursitis.
What is ultrasound assisted liposuction?
Another procedure, ultrasound assisted liposuction, is widely used in cosmetic surgery for the purpose of removing excessive fat tissue (Mann et al. 2008). The mechanism of action apparently involves cavitational fat cell break up with removal of the fat emulsion by suction through the probe.
When was ultrasound first used in physical therapy?
Physical Therapy. Unfocused beams of ultrasound for physical therapy were the first clinical application, dating to the 1950s , which often has been referred to simply as “therapeutic ultrasound” (Robertson and Baker, 2001). This modality now typically has a base unit for generating an electrical signal and a hand-held transducer.
How long does a flat transducer therapy last?
Therapy involves multiple treatments of 20 min each day by applying the large flat transducer to the site of injury and continuing treatment for periods of months. Although the process appears to be safe and effective, the therapy is slow and its use is predominantly limited to management of non-healing fractures.
What is ultrasonic energy used for?
The use of ultrasonic energy for therapy continues to expand, and approved applications now include uterine fibroid ablation, cataract removal (phacoemulsification), surgical tissue cutting and hemostasis, transdermal drug delivery, and bone fracture healing, among others.
Is ultrasound FDA approved?
Therapeutic applications of ultrasound may be used clinically after government approval (e. g. by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States) for marketing suitable treatment devices. A list of therapy applications with FDA approved devices in clinical use is provided in Table 1.
