Painless prick

Approved by the FDA yesterday, the SonoPrep blasts the skin with painless ultrasonic energy to make it more permeable. The SonoPrep technology, developed by MIT researchers, uses low-frequency, ultrasonic energy to push open tiny channels in the skin for fluids to be extracted and delivered.

"A painless 15-second treatment by the new device, followed by an application of lidocaine cream, will anesthetize the skin in five minutes. By itself, lidocaine takes one hour to work…Because the method is simple and painless, and speeds up the action of lidocaine—a topical anesthetic commonly used in pediatrics and on critically ill adults and children who must endure repeated needle sticks—it could become standard procedure in doctor's offices and hospitals. Another use would be before painful procedures such as angiography, balloon angioplasty, and the insertion of venous catheters."

The scientists predict that in the next five years, the same ultrasonic technique could be used to take the prickly pain out of routine vaccinations.
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