Cloud cavitation control for lithotripsy using high intensity focused ultrasound.

Cloud cavitation is potentially the most destructive form of cavitation. When the cloud cavitation is acoustically forced into a collapse, it has the potential to concentrate a very high pressure, more than 100 times the acoustic pressure, at its center. We experimentally investigate a method to control the collapse of high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU)-induced cloud cavitation to fragment kidney stones.