Bacterial loads can be effectively reduced using cavitation-mediated focused ultrasound, or histotripsy. In this study, gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli) in suspension were used as model bacteria to evaluate the effectiveness of two regimens of histotripsy treatments: cavitation histotripsy (CH) and boiling histotripsy (BH).

The results of this study suggest that both CH and BH can be used to inactivate E. coli in suspension, with the optimal regimen depending on the attainable peak negative focal pressure at the target.