Home Diseases and Conditions Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Irritable Bowel Syndrome

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Development Stage

Early Stage

Focused ultrasound research is in the laboratory phase and is not yet available for patients.

Clinical Trials

Focused ultrasound for this condition is being researched in clinical trials.

International Approval

Focused ultrasound is approved to treat this condition outside the US. Patients can seek commercial treatment at participating international sites.

FDA Approved

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved focus ultrasound for this condition. Patients can seek commercial treatment at participating sites.

Early Stage

Clinical Trials

International

FDA Approved

Focused ultrasound for this condition has been researched in clinical trials.

Focused Ultrasound Therapy

Focused ultrasound is a noninvasive, therapeutic technology with the potential to improve the quality of life and decrease the cost of care for patients with irritable bowel syndrome. This novel technology focuses beams of ultrasound energy precisely and accurately on targets deep in the body without damaging surrounding normal tissue.

How it Works
Where the beams converge, focused ultrasound produces neuromodulation of the nervous tissue that regulates the bowel, potentially enabling irritable bowel syndrome to be treated without surgery. There is also a group in Egypt that is using HIFU with cavitation and vibrations to help elevate the tissue temperature and produce rapid cell necrosis in the targeted tissues. While significant preclinical work has been accomplished, there is still much to be done before this technology will be widely available.

Advantages
The primary options for treatment of irritable bowel syndrome include medication, which is often ineffective.

For certain patients, focused ultrasound could provide a non-invasive alternative that may be more effective that conventional treatments. Focused ultrasound can reach the desired target without damaging surrounding tissue, and can also be repeated, if necessary. Focused ultrasound use and/or neuromodulation does not appear to have the side effects commonly found with systemic medications.

Clinical Trials

A clinical trial in Egypt is using focused ultrasound with cavitation to treat patients with Inflammatory Bowel Syndrome. 

The Foundation updates these pages regularly, but with the increasing number of clinical trials, we want to be sure that our audience has the latest information available. Therefore, we also added the website search information for the above trials. If you click here, it will take you to the latest information available from https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/. 

Regulatory Approval and Reimbursement

Focused ultrasound treatment for irritable bowel syndrome is not yet approved by regulatory bodies or covered by medical insurance companies.

Notable Papers

Jensen LJ, Loch FN, Kamphues C, Shahryari M, Marticorena Garcia SR, Siegmund B, Weidinger C, Kühl AA, Hamm B, Braun J, Sack I, Asbach P, Reiter R. Feasibility of in vivo magnetic resonance elastography of mesenteric adipose tissue in Crohn’s disease. Quant Imaging Med Surg. 2023 Aug 1;13(8):4792-4805. doi: 10.21037/qims-23-41. Epub 2023 Jun 28. PMID: 37581033  

Akhtar K, Hirschstein Z, Stefanelli A, Iannilli E, et al. Non-invasive peripheral focused ultrasound neuromodulation of the celiac plexus ameliorates symptoms in a rat model of inflammatory bowel disease. Exp Physiol. 2021 Jan 29. doi: 10.1113/EP088848.

Cotero V, Miwa H, Graf J, Ashe J, Loghin E, Di Carlo D, Puleo C. Periphereal Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation. J Neurosci Methods. 2020 Jul 15;341:108721. doi:10.1016/j.jneumeth.2020.108721. Epub 2020 May 6.

Click here for additional references from PubMed.