Therapeutic ultrasound: a promising future in clinical medicine

Although diagnostic ultrasound is now a multi-billion dollar a year industry, the therapeutic applications of ultrasound were initially thought to have more promise. Indeed, the Fry brothers were performing brain surgery on human patients in the early 1950’s, and with considerable success [1]. However, therapeutic ultrasound has still not yet gained its promising potential. Recently, there has been an enormous resurgence of interest in this topic, and several major projects are underway at various facilities around the world. We shall review our own substantial efforts in this area, with brief discussions of topics in lithotripsy, ultrasound-enhanced drug delivery, and acoustic hemostasis