HIFU: High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound to rejuvenate skin

High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (also known as HIFU) is a low invasive medical treatment that consists on using a special gun to shoot ultrasonic rays with high frequency and concentrated energy: destroying a focused group of cells.

Just like the microwave ovens, HIFU heats the cells through its ultrasonic beam: causing death of the same cells by reaching a heat of 55-100 °C, leaving the rest of tissue untouched.

It is a highly accurate device. The treated area is delimited in a selective way and it only leaves an oval shaped figure that will fade away with time. With the most advanced models, its action focuses only an area of 2x2x15 mm3.

High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Treatments

This kind of treatments is used mostly to attack benign or malignant tumors that are some kinds of cancer like cysts on the cervix, fibroids or bone tumors. It also has a serial of applications to the esthetic medicine since it can also rejuvenate skin, reduce wrinkles or reaffirm the eyebrows.

Nonetheless, this treatment cannot be used on the whole body, because it uses sound to vibrate the cells. Some intern organs contain air and therefore it expands with these sounds, that is why HIFU can´t be used everywhere within the body, another effect is caused to the bones since they contain a higher density, creating a different reaction to the ultrasonic waves.

In the other hand, if tumors are really expanded through the organism then its treatment and recovering time will be larger than expected.

Dr.Marco Landero

Urologist