Söring is one of the pioneers in the field of ultrasonic surgery, which has become an integral part of modern medicine nowadays. It enables the user to work in the immediate vicinity of highly sensitive structures while hardly affecting the surrounding healthy or critical structures.

Söring's ultrasonic technology is used in the following four fields:

Liver surgery
Neurosurgery
Spine surgery
Wound debridement

Ultrasonic surgery: how does it work?

An ultrasonic generator transmits high frequency, alternating current to the ultrasonic instrument, which converts the electrical energy into mechanical motion. Thereupon, the instrument’s sonotrode begins to oscillate. When getting into contact with tissue, the sonotrode causes different kinds of effects with different levels of tissue fragmentation, depending on the type of tissue involved. Cavitation occurs in strongly water-containing tissue types (e.g. liver parenchyma, tumors, wound debris) while a mechanical effect is responsible for the removal of bone tissue. Virtually no effect can be observed on collagen-containing tissue and structures with high elastin content (e.g. blood vessels, nerve strands, dura mater, healthy tissue), due to their significantly higher resistance to ultrasonic vibrations.

Advantages of ultrasonic surgery

  • different levels of efficiency for different types of tissue
  • nearly no effect on blood vessels, nerves, dura mater and healthy tissue
  • treatment in the immediate vicinity of highly sensitive structures possible

Effects of ultrasonic vibrations

Cavitative effect (cavitation)

The fast sonotrode movement generates cavitation bubbles within the irrigation fluid (e.g. an isotonic saline solution). Due to changing pressure conditions, the cavitation bubbles implode which lead to strong streams, the so-called ‘micro jets’. Once those streams strike the surface of the tissue, fragmentation might occur and biofilms may be disrupted.

The cavitative effect positively impacts the treatment of e.g. liver parenchyma, tumours and wound debris.

Mechanical effect

The vibrating sonotrode exerts pressure on the tissue through direct contact. When exceeding the tissue’s load limit, it will be torn open and eventually fragmented. As a result of this, the tissue can be removed.

This procedure is also known as mechanical abrasion and is mainly used in spinal surgery.