Ultrasound – Drug-Free Treatment for Muscular Pain

It undoubtedly all started when George K. Lewis, a director of the Analogic Corporation, Peabody, Massachusetts, took his middle school age son, George, Jr. to work with him. He set young Lewis up at a lab bench with other technicians, introduced him to electronics and soon had him wiring and soldering together his inventions. Lewis, Senior, worked with ultrasound and Junior earned his Ph.D. in biomedical ultrasonics. His thesis was titled “Ultrasound Assisted Drug Delivery to the Brain.”

When he was 25 years old Lewis, Jr. founded ZetrOZ, a medical manufacturer of therapeutic ultrasound devices. Lewis told OTW that their device, called “sam”, is the smallest, portable, therapeutic ultrasound system on the market and in the world—a noninvasive, drug-free alternative for treating chronic pain. “sam” is the first long-duration, therapeutic ultrasound device to receive 501(k) clearance from the FDA. In doing so, Lewis says, the FDA defined a whole new branch of medicine—one dealing with sustained acoustic medicine.

“sam” is available in the United States only with a prescription from a licensed healthcare provider. In Canada and in Europe, where it is CE-marked, it can be purchased over-the-counter.

The fledgling company’s first product was not “sam”, but an ultrasonic treatment for race horses called Ultroz. In 2011 Ultroz went with the Olympic Equestrian Team to London where trainers used it to treat overuse injuries and strained muscles in the horses.

The device, “sam”, operates on the same principal. It uses high frequency ultrasound energy waves to produce deep mechanical stimulation within the body. It “increases circulation, reduces inflammation, is clinically proven to be an effective deep therapeutic treatment for select medical concerns and, when used daily, provides added therapeutic benefit for chronic pain sufferers, ” Lewis said. The National Institute of Health has given a major grant to ZetrOZ to support clinical trials of “sam” for knee osteoarthritis pain.

“The use of therapeutic ultrasound to treat a variety of conditions, including musculoskeletal pain, offers great promise for patients, ” said Thomas M. Best, M.D., professor and Pomerene Chair, Division of Sports Medicine, Ohio State University. “In particular, this low intensity, iPod-sized, wearable, battery powered device and its early success in a series of pilot studies, represent a breakthrough in our abilities to treat patients in a user friendly convenient manner.”