Therapeutic ultrasound.

Therapeutic ultrasound has been in use for many years. Early applications were those for which tissue heating was the goal, and so it was used for soft tissue injuries such as may be incurred during sport. More recently, attention has been drawn both to high intensity focused beams that may be used for thermal ablation of selected regions, and also to low intensity fields that appear to be able to stimulate physiological processes, such as tissue repair, without biologically significant temperature rises. Ultrasonic tools are used for therapeutic effect in dentistry and are being investigated for use in thrombolysis. This paper reviews the various therapeutic applications of ultrasound.