Patent ID: 7497834

Claim:
The method of treating a host diagnosed with one or more biofilms, the biofilms having an outer barrier and an underlying colony of organisms comprises the steps of: receiving a host diagnosed with one or more biofilms; locating a region or location of a resident biofilm; activating a pressure pulse or acoustic shock wave generating source, the pressure pulse being an acoustic pulse which includes several cycles of positive and negative pressure, wherein the pressure pulse has an amplitude of the positive part of such a cycle should be above 0.1 MPa and the time duration of the pressure pulse is from below a microsecond to about a second, rise times of the positive part of the first pressure cycle in the range of nano-seconds (ns) up to some milli-seconds (ms), the acoustic shock waves being very fast pressure pulses having amplitudes above 0.1 MPa and rise times of the amplitude being below 100's of ns, the duration of the shock wave is typically below 1-3 micro-seconds (μs) for the positive part of a cycle and typically above some micro-seconds for the negative part of a cycle; emitting pressure pulses or acoustic shock waves using focused pulses or shock waves at an energy density up to 1.0 mmJ/mm 2 ; with or without creating cavitation bubbles in the location or region of the resident biofilm, the focused pulses or shock waves having a focal volume or point on the location or region of the resident biofilm or using unfocused pulses or shock waves and away from any localized geometric focal volume or point of the emitted shock waves wherein the emitted shock waves or pressure pulses either have no geometric focal volume or point or have a focal volume or point ahead of the location or region of a resident biofilm or beyond the location or region of a resident biofilm thereby passing the emitted waves or pulses through the location or region of a resident biofilm while avoiding having any localized focal point within the location or region of a resident biofilm wherein the emitted pressure pulses or shock waves are convergent, divergent, planar or near planar and the pressure pulse shock wave generator or source is based on electro-hydraulic, electromagnetic, piezoceramic or ballistic wave generation having an energy density value ranging as low as 0.00001 mJ/mm 2 to a high end of below 1.0 mJ/mm 2 ; and directing the pulses or shock waves to impinge the resident biofilm to destroy, fracture, fragment or otherwise open the outer barrier structure of the resident biofilm.