A Review of the Combination Therapy of Low Frequency Ultrasound with Antibiotics

Figure 1

Nonthermal effect of stable cavitation by microbubble-mediated ultrasound. The mechanical effect of cavitating bubbles created pores in the cell membrane. This allowed gentamicin to enter the bacteria via passive diffusion. (a) In ultrasound condition, there were sparse microbubbles and only a few gentamicin particles passed through cell membrane. (b) Addition of external microbubbles strengthened the cavitation, created more pores, and drove more drugs through bacterial cell membrane [16].

(a)

(b)