Devices and Equipment in Interventional Oncology and Their Operation

Abstract

This chapter focuses on ablation devices, equipment, and their operation. It exhibits less the principles of ablation than it does with the principal features of the technologies that are employed by the physician-user. These features include the device’s “applicator” (or probe) and the user interface. Applicator is a general term given to that element of the overall system that delivers the therapeutic agent to the tumor. The user interface is that with which the physician interacts to control the system to govern the treatment and to monitor the ablation based on feedback from the display.

Ablation can be divided into two main categories: (a) thermal and (b) nonthermal. Thermal ablation is a general term referring to a focal treatment involving an energy exchange with tissue that results in raising or lowering the temperature of the target. Various physical agents can be used as pyrogens and cryogens. Nonthermal ablation involves neither heating nor freezing. Nonthermal approaches include chemical ablation via intratumoral injection, intravenously injected drug-based ablation, and high-voltage electroporation.