The Contact Medium; Contact Control At Incomplete Contact; Combination Therapy; Connection And Disconnection Reactions - Enraf Nonius Sonopuls 492 Instrucciones De Manejo

5.6. The contact medium

In order to ensure efficient transfer of energy, a con-
tact medium is required between the treatment head
and the body. Air causes virtually total reflection of
the ultrasound energy. The best medium for the trans-
fer of ultrasound energy is a gel.
• For preference, use Enraf-Nonius Contact-Gel, as
this allows the excellent characteristics of the treat-
ment heads to be used to their full advantage.
• The gel should be applied to the part of the body
to be treated and then spread out with the treat-
ment head.
• Never apply the gel to the treatment head. The
treatment head will register this as contact and
may emit ultrasound energy, which could dam-
age the treatment head.
If the body surface is very irregular, making it diffi-
cult to obtain good contact between the treatment
head and the body, or if direct contact must be
avoided (e.g. due to pain), the affected area may be
treated under water (subaqual method). The water
should be degassed (by previous boiling) in order
to prevent air bubbles arising on the treatment head
and the body.
5.7. Contact control at incomplete
contact
When the treatment head only contacts partially with
the body, the treatment is interrupted. When not
enough surface of the treatment head makes con-
tact with the patient the treatment is interrupted (=
contact control). The intensity display starts flash-
ing and the treatment time is interrupted. The con-
tact control does not function at a set intensity of
0.1 and 0.2 W/cm².

5.8. Combination therapy

The treatment surface of a connected treatmenthead
is connected to the negative electrode (cathode) of
the current current channel 2. This connection is only
available when combination therapy is selected.
Remove the negative electrode (black plug) of the
electrode cable. The current flows between the posi-
tive electrode (red plug) and the treatmenthead.
5.9. Connection and disconnection
reactions
Constant Current (CC) output characteristics may
cause unpleasant connection and disconnection re-
actions if the electrodes are not securely placed or
lose contact with the skin. Make sure the output is
set to 0 mA when you apply or remove the elec-
44
trodes. Preferably use Constant Voltage (CV) in case
of dynamic application techniques.

5.10. Electrolytic effects

Electrolysis occurs under the electrodes when cur-
rent types with a DC component are applied. Be-
cause the greatest concentration of electrolytic by-
products caused by ion migration occur under the
electrodes, we recommend the use of the supplied
sponges to keep the effects to a minimum. Make
sure that the sponges are kept well moistened and
place the thick side of the sponge between the flex-
ible rubber electrodes and the patient.

5.11. Remote control

For the Sonopuls 492 a special remote control is
available. The remote control can be connected to
connector [3-2]. The remote control has 2 intensity
buttons for setting the intensity of the current chan-
nels and an emergency stop.
USA only:
Ultrasound emission can be terminated in the fol-
lowing ways:
A. Lifting the treatment head from the patient. Be-
cause of the loss of acoustic contact the
Sonopuls 492 stops emission.
B. Decrease the treatment time to zero with the
time setting control.
C. Switch the power off by use of the power switch.