Ultrasonic scanner and shock wave generator

US4771787A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• RICHARD WOLF GMBH · DE

Inventors

• Helmut Wurster · Oberderdingen, DE
• Werner Krauss · Hamburg, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 11, 1986
• Grant date: Sep 20, 1988
• Expiry date: Dec 11, 2006

Classification

• Technology area (CPC A): Human Necessities
• CPC primary: A61B8/0833
• WIPO field: Medical technology
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A device for spatial location and destruction of concretions in bodily cavities by application of pulsed ultrasonic shock waves generated by a shock wave transducer focussed on the concretion in question, the shock waves being transmitted to the patient by a coupling fluid. This transducer may also be operated under reduced power if appropriate during the locating operation, as an A-scanner, according to the pulse echo mode. A B-section image of the bodily tissue traversed by the ultrasonic field is generated on a monitor by means of at least one B-scanner, so that the concretion present in the section image may be placed in coincidence with a target mark present on the monitor and indicating the position of the transducer focus by a relative displacment between the patient and the device, and the shock wave transducer may thereafter be placed in operation under corresponding high power for destruction of the concretion. A support carrying the B-scanner is displaceable with respect to the symmetry axis of the shock wave transducer during the locating operation, so that it is possible to have a plurality of different section images and thus a high degree of spatial resolution of the…