RF and Microwave Ablation

Microwave and RF Ablation tools are used to treat tumors thermally and for other applications. The RF and Microwave ablation equipment can heat the tissues containing tumors up to an extreme level that the tumor is reduced,  eradicated or destroyed. This type of thermal therapy can help avoid or reduce damage to healthy tissue. These are often used for minimally invasive surgery.  A Robot or advanced imaging techniques can guide the RF and Ablation probe. Traditional  surgery is still used for some types of cancer such as liver, lung, grain and skin.  The risk with traditional surgical techniques is that they are invasive with a potentially greater chance of infection, longer stays in the hospital, higher hospital costs,  more extended recovery periods, and less exacting tumor removal. 

 

The RF and Microwave Ablation systems have transducers ( antennas)  that create a strong field that heats tissue and metallic-based materials, similar to conventional RF probes. Fiber Optic Probes are immune to these fields. The Fiber Optic probes can be used in the tool itself, inside the lesion, and surrounding a tumor. Each probe at a specific location can provide information on the actual temperature at a particular point within tissue or a tumor. Probes can also be used to provide temperature on surrounding organs to monitor to prevent unintentional damage. The probes can give feedback to ablation units for more precise operation. These are typically used in approved medical devices and for research and development (R&D) applications. Fiber Optic temperature Measurements on phantoms or animals can be used to validate surgical simulations. Other uses are to characterize a new tool thermally. Data from these experiments can be used with government submissions. 

 

Osensa Innovations manufactures fiber optic temperature measurement probes  which are immune to the rf and microwave fields, have with higher temperature ranges and are very thin. These are easier to place in the tumor. Some are used  for catheter-based temperature measurement applications.