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 peripheral neuropathy. This novel technology focuses beams of ultrasound energy precisely and accurately on the nerves in the body without damaging surrounding normal tissue.
How it Works
Where the beams converge, low intensity focused ultrasound was use to target the tibial and peroneal nerves in the calf muscles to cause reduced pain from the treated extremities.
The primary options for treatment of peripheral neuropathy include medication and at times invasive surgery.
For certain patients, focused ultrasound could provide a non-invasive alternative to surgery 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
At the present time, there are no clinical trials recruiting patients for focused ultrasound treatment of peripheral neuropathy, but it may be included in some of the studies being done for neuropathic 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/.
Regulatory Approval and Reimbursement
Focused ultrasound treatment for peripheral neuropathy is not yet approved by regulatory bodies or covered by medical insurance companies.
Notable Papers
Shih LC. Essential Tremor. Continuum (Minneap Minn). 2025 Aug;31(4):979-999. doi: 10.1212/cont.0000000000001605. Epub 2025 Aug 1.PMID: 40748121
Hosseinzadeh D, Barary M, Javanian M, Alizadeh Khatir A, Ebrahimpour S. Commentary on “Explore the Effect of Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound on Pain Relief in Patients With Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy”. J Ultrasound Med. 2025 Jun 24. doi: 10.1002/jum.16753. Online ahead of print. PMID: 40552684 No abstract available.
Zhang X, Wang Y, Peng W, Liu Z, Liu L, Han X, Li C, Li F, Ge Q. Explore the Effect of Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound on Pain Relief in Patients With Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy: A Pilot Randomized Trial. J Ultrasound Med. 2025 May 5. doi: 10.1002/jum.16716. Online ahead of print.PMID: 40322947
Deer TR, Pope JE, Petersen EA, Abdallah RT, Amirdelfan K, Azeem N, Bansal V, Barkoh K, Chapman KB, Denis DR, Dorsi MJ, Escobar A, Falowski SM, Garcia RA, Hagedorn JM, Heros RD, James WS, Kalia H, Lansford T, Malinowski MN, Manzi SM, Mehta P, Moghim RZ, Moore GA, Motivala SL, Navalgund YA, Patel RG, Pilitsis JG, Schatman ME, Shumsky PM, Strand NH, Tomycz ND, Yue JJ, Sayed D. An Evidence-Based Consensus for the Use of Neurostimulation for the Treatment of Non-Surgical Low Back Pain: The NEURON Group. J Pain Res. 2025 Mar 14;18:1247-1274. doi: 10.2147/JPR.S500342. eCollection 2025.PMID: 40104824
Jackson LM, Kaufmann TJ, Lehman VT, Lee KH, Miller KJ, Hassan A, Klassen BT. Clinical Characteristics of Patients with Gait Instability after MR-Guided Focused Ultrasound Thalamotomy. Tremor Other Hyperkinet Mov (N Y). 2021 Oct 21;11:41. doi: 10.5334/tohm.643. eCollection 2021.PMID: 34721943
Click here for additional references from PubMed.