The innovation of surgical concepts and technology has promoted the development of surgical operations towards minimal- or non-invasiveness. In recent years

a variety of minimally- or non-invasive treatment methods have emerged

among which histotripsy is being noticed due to its characteristics of non-invasive

non-thermal ablation and stimulation of the immune system. Histotripsy typically uses microsecond to millisecond length ultrasound pulses with high peak negative pressure to instantly generate a cluster of cavitation bubbles in the target area and the expansion and collapse of the cavitation bubbles shatter the target tissue into subcellular fragments. According to the formation mode of cavitation bubbles

it can be divided into cavitation cloud histotripsy and boiling histotripsy. Nowadays

histotripsy has been applied in benign prostatic hyperplasia

prostate cancer

liver cancer

renal cancer

osteosarcoma

pancreatic cancer

cardiovascular diseases

thrombosis

and so on. This review provides an overview of histotripsy covering the mechanism

characteristics

and the latest research results on in-vitro experiments

animal studies

and clinical trials.