Focused Ultrasound Therapy
Focused ultrasound is a rapidly evolving, therapeutic technology that could transform the quality of life and decrease the cost of care for patients with chronic pain. 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 several therapeutic effects that are being evaluated. Some clinical trials involve the use of high intensity focused ultrasound to ablate nerves that are responsible for chronic pain, and other sites are using a neuromodulatory approach to impact the target. There is also a combination of other co-morbidities that are related to the impact of pain, such as alcohol or substance abuse that can also have an impact on the disease. Please also see “Pain, Neuropathic” for additional discussions that may also be relevant.
The primary options for treatment of highly variable and can include potentially addictive medication and possible surgery.
For certain patients, focused ultrasound could provide an effective and non-invasive alternative to current therapy with less risk of complications and lower cost.
Advantages
- Focused ultrasound is non-invasive, so it does not carry added concerns like surgical wound healing or infection.
- Focused ultrasound can reach the desired target without damaging surrounding tissue.
- It can be repeated, if necessary.
Clinical Trials
This clinical trial at Virginia Tech is using low intensity focused ultrasound on normal patients to see their impact to painful stimuli.
A second clinical trial at Virginia Tech is using low intensity focused ultrasound on normal adults to see the impact on painful stimuli. This project is recruiting patients with an invitation only format.
A clinical trial at Virginia Tech is using low intensity focused ultrasound to treat patients who have complex regional pain syndromes or fibromyalgia.
A clinical trial at Virginia Tech is treating complex patients who have chronic pain, anxiety and craving.
A clinical trial at Virginia Tech is treating patients who have chronic pain and alcohol abuse.
This clinical trial at Virginia Tech is treating patients with a chronic pain diagnosis with low intensity focused ultrasound. This project is recruiting patients with an invitational only format.
A clinical trial at the University of Utah is treating patients with focused ultrasound who have chronic neurological pain.
A clinical trial in Washington, DC is treating complex patients who have chronic back pain, opioid use disorder and anxiety.
A clinical trial in Massachusetts is treating chronic pain patients who have carpal tunnel syndrome.
A clinical trial in Taiwan is treating patients with chronic facet arthritis and back pain.
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/.
Find a Treatment Site
Search for a treatment center or clinical trial near you.
Regulatory Approval and Reimbursement
Focused ultrasound treatment for chronic pain is not yet approved by regulatory bodies or covered by medical insurance companies.
Notable Papers
Kim MG, Yeh CY, Gao H, Lee K, Gupta K, He B. Low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound engages parvalbumin-positive GABAergic interneurons in a humanized mouse model of chronic pain: From electrophysiology to cellular investigation. J Neural Eng. 2026 Mar 19. doi: 10.1088/1741-2552/ae54cd. PMID: 41855581
Li X, Lin L, Zhu M, Li X, Yu J, Lu D, Li S, Shen Y, Xiong B, Zhao C, Zhou B, Yin H, Xu H, Guan X. Low-intensity focused ultrasound-activated piezoelectric gel bandage for diabetic wound repair and neuropathic pain relief. Nat Commun. 2026 Mar 19. doi: 10.1038/s41467-026-70771-y. PMID: 41857055
Paio F, Bulgarelli G, Tagliamonte M, Bovi T, Longhi M, Nicolato A, Sala F, Petralia B, Bonetti B, Tinazzi M, Ricciardi GK, Tamburin S. How do we FUS? Peri-procedural management of magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound: An EMEA regional survey. Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2026 Mar 12;146:108284. doi: 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2026.108284. PMID: 41844501
De Schlichting E, Huang Y, Jones RM, Meng Y, Cao X, Baskaran A, Hynynen K, Hamani C, Lipsman N, Goubran M, Davidson B. Focused ultrasound capsulotomy: predicting the probability of successful lesioning based on skull morphology. J Neurosurg. 2026 Jan 1;144(1):94-103. doi: 10.3171/2025.6.JNS2588. PMID: 41072044
McKenzie A, Dombrower R, McKenzie S, Theeraphapphong N, Abd-Elsayed A. Emerging Nonpharmacologic Analgesic Technologies in Anesthesia: Mechanisms, Evidence, and Future Directions for Pharmacologic Alternatives. Biomedicines. 2026 Jan 20;14(1):225. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines14010225. PMID: 41595760
Slavin KV. Commentary: A Scoping Review of Focused Ultrasound- Blood-Brain Barrier Opening for Treatment of Chronic Pain. Neurosurgery. 2026 Feb 1;98(2):e23-e24. doi: 10.1227/neu.0000000000003840. Epub 2025 Oct 31. PMID: 41171002
Strohman A, Legon W. Neuromodulation of the Cingulate Cortex for Pain. Neuroscientist. 2025 Dec;31(6):611-629. doi: 10.1177/10738584251337652. Epub 2025 Jun 26. PMID: 40574510
Davidson B, Schmidt FA, Bichsel O, Hajiabadi MM, Lozano AM. Transcranial Focused Ultrasound: A Transformative Tool for Intracranial Ablation, Drug Delivery, and Neuromodulation. IEEE Rev Biomed Eng. 2025 Nov 11;PP. doi: 10.1109/RBME.2025.3624970. PMID: 41217925
Chen Y, Sun Y, Li X, Lin Y, He P, Wang Q. Immediate efficacy of low-intensity focused ultrasound versus planar ultrasound in patients with myofascial pain syndrome of upper trapezius: a randomized controlled clinical trial. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2025 Jul 31;26(1):738. doi: 10.1186/s12891-025-09017-9. PMID: 40745538
Gillespie E, Bouchal E, Elliott T, Pilitsis JG. A Scoping Review of Focused Ultrasound- Blood-Brain Barrier Opening for Treatment of Chronic Pain. Neurosurgery. 2025 Jul 17. doi: 10.1227/neu.0000000000003595. PMID: 40673684
Shi Y, Wu W. Advancements and prospects of transcranial focused ultrasound in pain neuromodulation. Pain. 2025 Feb 18. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003556. PMID: 39968911
Kim MG, Yeh CY, Yu K, Li Z, Gupta K, He B. Analgesic effect of simultaneously targeting multiple pain processing brain circuits in an aged humanized mouse model of chronic pain by transcranial focused ultrasound. APL Bioeng. 2025 Feb 19;9(1):016108. doi: 10.1063/5.0236108. eCollection 2025 Mar. PMID: 39990925
Lin YT, Chen KT, Hsu CC, Liu HL, Jiang YT, Ho CW, Chen JC, Li HY, Weng CC, Hsu PH. Stimulation of dorsal root ganglion with low-intensity focused ultrasound ameliorates pain responses through the GABA inhibitory pathway. Life Sci. 2025 Jan 15;361:123323. doi: 10.1016/j.lfs.2024.123323. Epub 2024 Dec 19. PMID: 39709165
Trujillo FA, Thomas HA, Berwal D, Rajulapati N, DiMarzio M, Pilitsis JG. Hip and waist circumference correlations with demographic factors and pain intensity in patients with chronic pain. Trujillo FA, Thomas HA, Berwal D, Rajulapati N, DiMarzio M, Pilitsis JG.Pain Manag. 2024;14(8):421-429. doi: 10.1080/17581869.2024.2403961. Epub 2024 Oct 3. PMID: 39363634
Colasurdo M, Ahmed AK, Gandhi D. MR-guided Focused Ultrasound Thalamotomy for Chronic Pain. Magn Reson Imaging Clin N Am. 2024 Nov;32(4):661-672. doi: 10.1016/j.mric.2024.04.005. Epub 2024 Jul 25. PMID: 39322355
Click here for additional references from PubMed.