How ultrasound helps wounds heal faster
|Published
Ultrasound is more commonly associated with pregnancy scans than repairing injuries. Ultrasound is more commonly associated with pregnancy scans than repairing injuries.
London - It’s more commonly associated with pregnancy scans than repairing injuries.
But wounds can be healed three times faster by treating them with ultrasound, scientists have revealed.
It can even heal wounds that would otherwise lead to amputation – and is without the side effects of drug treatments.
The high frequency sound waves routinely used to scan pregnant women have been found to stimulate the body’s natural healing process.
Researchers from the University of Sheffield say the treatment, which is especially effective on diabetics and the elderly, could be ready for use by doctors within four years.
It could help the millions of people for whom wounds heal more slowly, including the UK’s 11 million over-65s, three million diabetics and ten million smokers. Around 200 000 people a year are treated by the NHS for chronic wounds, particularly bedsores and leg ulcers, at a cost of £3.1-billion.
Lead author Dr Mark Bass, from the university’s Centre for Membrane Interactions and Dynamics, said: “Skin ulcers are excruciatingly painful for patients and in many cases can only be resolved by amputation of the limb. Using ultrasound wakes up the cells and stimulates a normal healing process.
“Because it is just speeding up the normal processes, the treatment doesn’t carry the risk of side effects that are often associated with drug treatments.”
The study, published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, was carried out with the universities of Bristol and Cardiff and orthopaedic company Bioventus.
Daily Mail