14 DAY TRIAL // Inner organ damage caused by the crush against the steering wheel is one of the main causes of death in car accidents. A team at the University of Washington has been collaborating for over a decade with doctors at Harborview Medical Center to develop a new emergency treatment that seems depicyed from Star Trek: a tricorder type device employing high-intensity focused ultrasound rays tens of thousands of times more powerful than those used in imaging frequencies and with frequencies of 1000 to 10,000 hertz (cycles per second) to seal punctured lungs.
"No one has ever looked at treating lungs with ultrasound," said co-author Shahram Vaezy, a UW associate professor of bioengineering.
A lung is a collection of air sacs and air blocks the ultrasound transmission, that's why many were skeptical. But the new tests have revealed that punctures on the surface of the lung, where injuries usually occur, are cured with the help of the new therapy, but the technology has not been yet used in human trials.
"The results are really impressive," Vaezy said.
The technology could also have other applications, like "bloodless surgery" with no scalpels or sutures in sight, numbing pain or killing cancerous tissue.
Lenses can focus the ultrasound beams at a particular spot on the patient's lungs, like focusing sunlight with a magnifying glass and this way a tiny hot point the size and shape of a rice grain is created. The blood cells are heated until they form a seal. An important aspect is that the tissue between the device and the spot being treated does not get heated, as in the case of a laser beam.
"You can penetrate deep into the body and deliver the energy to the bleeding very accurately," Vaezy said.
The recent trials on pigs' lungs revealed that ultrasounds sealed the leaks in 1-2 minutes and over 95 % of the 70 incisions after 2 minutes.
"The findings suggest that ultrasound might replace what is now a painful, invasive procedure. Lung injuries are relatively common because the chest is a big surface that's often exposed to crushing or puncture wounds," said co-author Gregory Jurkovich, chief of trauma at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and a UW professor of surgery.
Bleeding can be stopped by packing the wound and applying pressure. As far as the lungs are concerned, doctors drain through a straw the blood and air to create healing conditions for the wound. But in 10 % of the cases neither of these techniques work and surgery is required to stop the bleeding: a long incision is made, the ribs are separated and the lung is sewed or partially removed.
The ultrasound device, the size of a golf ball, is inserted into a handle employed by the doctors to scan the outside of the body. Previous tests revealed the tool could seal blood vessels, stopping bleeding in the spleen.
"Someday, this tool might be used for image-guided therapy. Doctors will scan the body from the outside, recognize where the injury is, focus the beam on the injury and use the beams to seal the wound. The futuristic medical technology's promise is substantial. It would be non-invasive and it would stop the bleeding from the outside. When it happens, that's going to revolutionize how we would care for some of these injuries," said Jurkovich.