Histotripsy systems and methods

A method of applying histotripsy treatment, comprising the steps of:

• identifying a target tissue volume under a skin surface of a subject;
• generating a digital treatment plan that includes a plurality of treatment locations within the target tissue volume and an anticipated thermal profile;
• and
• delivering histotripsy pulses to the target tissue volume according to the digital treatment plan that limits prefocal tissue heating according to the anticipated thermal profile by:
• laterally moving a focus of an ultrasound therapy array across the skin surface to a first of the plurality of treatment locations within the target tissue volume;
• delivering ultrasound pulses from the ultrasound therapy array to form a cavitation bubble cloud at the first of the plurality of treatment locations;
• rapidly electronically steering the cavitation bubble cloud through a plurality of treatment points to change a depth of the cavitation bubble cloud in the target tissue volume;
• and
• repeating the laterally moving, delivering, and rapidly electronically steering steps for each of the remaining plurality of treatment volumes.