Review on Lithotripsy and Cavitation in Urinary Stone Therapy

Abstract

Cavitation is the sudden formation of vapor bubbles or voids in liquid media and occurs after rapid changes in pressure as a consequence of mechanical forces. It is mostly an undesirable phenomenon. Although the elimination of cavitation is a major topic in the study of fluid dynamics, its destructive nature could be exploited for therapeutic applications. Ultrasonic and hydrodynamic sources are two main origins for generating cavitation. The purpose of this review is to give the reader a general idea about the formation of cavitation phenomenon and existing biomedical applications of ultrasonic and hydrodynamic cavitation. Because of the high number of the studies on ultrasound cavitation in the literature, the main focus of this review is placed on the lithotripsy techniques, which have been widely used for the treatment of urinary stones. Accordingly, cavitation phenomenon and its basic concepts are presented in Section II. The significance of the ultrasound cavitation in the urinary stone treatment is discussed in Section III in detail and hydrodynamic cavitation as an important alternative for the ultrasound cavitation is included in Section IV. Finally, side effects of using both ultrasound and hydrodynamic cavitation in biomedical applications are presented in Section V.

Fundamentals, biomedical applications and future potential of micro-scale cavitation-a review

“…Another possible lane for micro-scale cavitation is the use of destructive energy of collapse for ablating or lysing undesired tissues or entities inside the human body. For example, high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) and lithotripsy, both associated with the activation of cavitation nuclei inside tissues and surrounding liquids, has long been known and used for kidney and gal stone fragmentation (interested readers are invited to refer to Bailey et al 181 as well Ghorbani et al 182 ). As another instance, ultrasound assisted thrombolysis was introduced as an alternative treatment method for patients with acute pulmonary embolism complications.…”

The application of a novel hydrodynamic cavitation device to debride intra-articular monosodium urate crystals

“…The mechanical effect of it is ascribed to stable cavitation caused by continuous microbubble oscillation and inertial cavitation generated by microbubble bursting [11]. Currently, cavitation technology was comprehensively applied to diagnosis and surgical ablation in clinical practice [10,12]. Hydrodynamic cavitation is defined as cavitation generated in flow.…”

Multiphysics Analysis of Ultrasonic Shock Wave Lithotripsy and Side Effects on Surrounding Tissues

“…The SWL, as an effective biomedical treatment, is the most common treatment for kidney stones and also a useful method for uncomplicated, upper urinary tract calculi. The shock wave’s effects and cavitation phenomenon are two important mechanisms on kidney stone fragmentation [ 14 ]. K. G. Wang [ 15 ] explained the effects of a bubble in the shock path and fracture behaviors of the stone using a multiphase fluid-solid coupled model.…”