Ultrasonic technology of nucleus pulposus destruction

The usage of ultrasonic oscillations energy for a nucleus pulposus disintegration of intervertebral disks allows to approach to treatment of a spine less radically and traumatically. On the chair of an industrial and medical electronics of Tomsk polytechnic university together with the chair of outpatient polyclinic help of Tomsk military-medical academy the experimental sample of ultrasonic surgical eliminator with following acoustic parameters was designed: signal frequency is 22 kHz, signal swing is 20-100 microns, power is 30-70 W/cm/sup 2/. The device is designed on the basis of a piezoelectric transducer with the usage of an original method of introducing it in a disk space. With the help of the given device, in anatomical lab of the Siberian medical university and in Tomsk instrument-making plant a series of experiments on nucleus pulposus destruction is conducted. In outcome it is detected, that the more intensive dissemination of ultrasonic oscillations in self-contained area of the intervertebral disk destroys the disk in the periphery, but impacts it closer to center. So it is suggested that one fills the annulus fibrosus space by a medium, which destroys the nucleus pulposus physicochemical connections and, besides that, plays the role of an inversion liquid. To increase the Q-factor of a system the technique of flexural oscillation damping and thermal shield of a working section of the device is offered. A surgical eliminator of the given type introduces concern for the practicing physicians providing treatment of different consequences of nerve compression syndromes.