Shock waves used for various types of healings

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 13 Apr 2005 - 0:00 PDT


Shock waves, high-pressure acoustic disturbances that travel from one region to another, are already used to break up kidney stones.

But new uses have emerged. Austrian surgeon Wolfgang Schaden (ismst@aon.at) will describe the use of shock waves on patients to heal non-union fractures, those that fail to heal after 6-9 months (1aBB1). Joerg Hausdorf of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich (joerg.hausdorf@med.uni-muenchen.de) found that shock waves increased the presence of molecular compounds that promote bone healing (1aBB3).

Orthopedic surgeon John P. Furia of SUN Orthopedics and Sports Medicine in Pennsylvania will present the use of shock waves to treat chronic heel spurs (plantar fasciitis) and tennis elbow. (1aBB4). In a randomized, double-blinded human clinical trial, Kenneth Pace of the University of Toronto (Kenneth.pace@utoronto.ca) discovered that breaking up kidney stones was more effectively achieved by administering only 60 shock waves a minute instead of the usual 120, especially for medium sized stones in the 100 mm2 size range (1aBB7).


Do students change their accents shortly after they enroll in college? How can ultrasound trigger healing in bone fractures that are otherwise very stubborn to mend? Could airplane noise lower a student's test scores?

These and other questions will be addressed at the joint meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) and the Canadian Acoustical Association (CAA), to be held May 16-20, 2005 at the Hyatt Regency Vancouver Hotel (655 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 2R7, Canada, 604-639-4820). Over 1050 papers will be presented, making it one of the largest acoustics meetings to date. ASA (http://asa.aip.org) is the largest scientific organization in the United States devoted to acoustics. CAA (http://www.caa-aca.ca) is a professional, interdisciplinary organization devoted to acoustics in Canada.

WORLD WIDE PRESS ROOM

We encourage you to visit ASA's "World Wide Press Room" (located at http://www.acoustics.org/press) before and during the meeting. By the week of May 2, the site will contain lay-language versions of selected meeting papers. These papers will enable you to cover the meeting, even if you can't leave your desk.

MEDIA INQUIRIES

Reporters covering the meeting can receive a complimentary press badge to attend all sessions. Please fill out the reply form if you are interested in attending the meeting. Ben Stein (bstein@aip.org, 301-209-3091) and Martha Heil (mheil@aip.org; 626-354-5613) of the American Institute of Physics will be available both remotely and on-site to facilitate your requests, from contacting speakers at the meeting to obtaining background material on meeting topics.

VIEWING MEETING ABSTRACTS

Full abstracts of the papers mentioned in this news release can be viewed at the Meeting Abstracts Database (http://asa.aip.org/asasearch.html) by typing in the last name of the author or the appropriate paper code. Entire sessions can be viewed by simply typing in the session code followed by a star (e.g., 1aBB*). In addition, typing a general subject (such as "guitar") or a particular university or city (such as "Toronto") may provide other results of interest.

Contact: Ben Stein
bstein@aip.org
301-209-3091
American Institute of Physics
http://www.aip.org

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