The Sonocur Device is a sophisticated Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy device in which a shock wave is generated at the base of the shock tube by an electromagnetic acoustic source. When a voltage pulse from a capacitor reaches an aluminum membrane, the membrane is repelled causing a shock wave to course through a water filled generator. The shock wave moves through the water into an acoustic lens. The lens then focuses the energy of the shockwave on a concentrated point a fixed distance from the lens.

Interaction

The Sonocur administers a wide range of low energy shock waves , which allow for anesthesia free treatment. The articulating head of the Sonocur machine is placed onto the area where the patient feels pain and fine adjustment are made to the area of therapeutic focus (point of maximal focus).

The treatment consists of initiating a preset number of pulses or shock waves. As the treatment progresses, a trained technician will graduate the energy level to therapeutic levels. By gradually increasing the intensity of the shock waves instead of immediately establishing the best level for therapy, the patient can experience the Hyperstimluation Analgesia effect.

This effect allows the patient to experience minimal increase in pain during the procedure.

Effects

Even though shockwaves have been clinically employed for 20 years, their effects are not precisely known. Generally, the following phases of tissue effects have been postulated:

• Physical Phase. Extracellular cavitations, ionized molecules and an increase of membrane permeability are direct effects of the shock waves.

• Subsequent Physical / Chemical Phase. Diffusible radicals and interactions with biomolecules (in both phases, mitochondrial lesions have been observed with electronmicroscopy).

• Chemical Phase: Intracellular reactions and molecular changes.

• Biological Phase: What occurs in tissues when these changes persist.

Result

The effective result of this graduated program of Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy (extracorporeal shock wave therapy) is a change in the physical, chemical and biological composition of the soft tissue. Researchers have hypothesized that the treatment causes the following changes:

• Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy causes physical changes in the cell membrane of nerves inhibiting the sensation of pain.

• Shock waves cause chemical alteration and/or formation of chemical compounds in the affected area resulting in a reduction of painful stimuli.

• Hyperstimulation analgesia occures when low energy shock waves stimulate nerves through a complicated pathway eventually inhibiting pain transmission.  This effect allow the patient to experience minimal increase in pain during the procedure.

• Neovascularization: Shock waves focused by the Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy therapy device induce increased blood supply in the treated area.