Effects of Ultrasound

Ultrasound is a very safe way of measuring densities of objects without actually opening the body, however there are some minor side effects it may have on the body. As ultrasound, sound that is too high frequency to be heard by humans, is absorbed by tissues, it heats them up. This is caused by the fact that Ultrasound is a mechanical wave, and as such is created vibrations, these vibrations can bring about heat changes in tissues as high as 40 degrees Celsius at a distance of 5 Centimeters. This effect can have both positive and negative consequences. Some of the benefits of this heating are used in a method called “Ultrasound Therapy” this is the process of heating inner tissues of a patient to stimulate repair. The negative side of things is that Ultrasound machines are usually used to examine unborn babies, and there is no proven research that shows that this heat may not cause damage to the fragile environment which is required for fetal growth. The other major side effect of Ultrasound are cavitations, these are small gas bubbles that can form in cells and tissues when they are exposed to high amounts of negative pressure. These gas bubbles can accumulate to the point of bursting a cell, in truly untrained hands perhaps even some tissues. Once again, there is a positive use for this side effect of Ultrasound. Cavitation's have been used in the field of plastic surgery as a way of bypassing surgical methods in liposuction.