UK Hospitals - NHS
Fear of surgery is one of the main reasons that thousands of Britons avoid visiting their doctor. Because of this fear, these otherwise rational individuals prefer to ignore health problems rather than have them diagnosed. However, the emergence of high-intensity focussed ultrasound (HIFU) means that going under the knife could be a thing of the past.
Many people associate ultrasound with ultrasound baby scans, but recently, a number of patients have avoided invasive surgery by having ultrasound surgical treatment. Increasingly, this surgery is becoming available at UK Hospitals – NHS. More details on NHS hospitals offering this kind of surgery can be found at surgeryofsound.org.
Sufferers of prostate cancers were the first group to experience the widespread benefits of HIFU. The treatment normally takes between one and three hours and avoids damage to important neighbouring tissue, such as the bladder neck. Research is also being carried out into the treatment of other cancers with ultrasound.
UK Hospitals – NHS might soon use HIFU in order to deliver drugs in the treatment of cancer. This method is most useful in limiting side-effects commonly seen in treatments such as chemotherapy. In this case, the drug is only released at the site of the tumour and enables high drug concentrations to be administered.
The best site for more detailed information about surgery using ultrasound is surgeryofsound.org. The website has all the latest news on advances in the field, as well as articles providing more detailed information about the current availability of ultrasound treatment to cancer sufferers.