An explanation for the variation of the sonophoretic transdermal transport enhancement from drug to drug.

Over the last few decades, application of therapeutic ultrasound (frequency between 1 and 3 MHz and intensity between 1 and 2 W/cm2) has been attempted to enhance transdermal transport of several drugs, a method referred to as sonophoresis. The sonophoretic enhancement of transdermal drug transport was found to vary significantly from drug to drug. In certain cases, ultrasound did not induce any enhancement of transdermal drug transport. This variation in the efficacy of sonophoresis has raised a controversy regarding its applicability as a transdermal delivery enhancer. The objective of this paper is to provide a summary of the literature data on sonophoresis and an explanation for the observed variation of the sonophoretic enhancement from drug to drug. This paper also presents an equation to qualitatively predict whether therapeutic ultrasound may enhance transdermal transport of a given drug based on knowledge of the drug passive skin permeability and octanol-water partition coefficient.