Method and apparatus for laser ablation under ultrasound guidance

Abstract

A method and apparatus for performing minimally-invasive image-guided laser ablation of targeted region within a tissue or organ comprising the following: A guidance tool that can guide laser source to a predefined target region from a planning image; A controller that can control energy from laser source, duration of its application and dosage of energy from laser source; and a computer with software that can compute thermometry based on precise location and duration of application or dosage of the laser source. The computer receives signal from controller and can control or shut-off laser energy.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]The present application is a non-provisional of U.S. Provisional Patent Application 61 / 700,273, filed Sep. 12, 2012, the entirety of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONPRIOR ART[0002]U.S. Pat. No. 8,155,416, issued on Apr. 10, 2012 for invention titled “Methods and apparatuses for planning, performing, monitoring and assessing thermal ablation,” discloses a thermal ablation system using an x-ray system to measure temperature changes throughout a volume of interest in a patient. Image data sets captured by the x-ray system during a thermal ablation procedure provide temperature change information for the volume being subjected to the thermal ablation. However, the invention does not disclose a method of using a guidance tool or tracking method for thermal ablation. Also, there are no claims on performing the thermal ablation under ultrasound guidance with real time thermal monitoring or multi-mod...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

When trying to localize the ablation, cryotherapy suffers from the disadvantage that the temperature gradient is very large from the body temperature to the ablation temperature.

As a result, while the tissue is being locally cooled, the surrounding tissue also cool down to very unsafe temperatures.

The ablation is thus hard to control and causes irreparable damage to healthy tissue.

The traditional drawback to using laser ablation is that it cannot be performed under ultrasound guidance since traditional ultrasound does not provide thermometry information.

However, this method is cumbersome, very expensive, and requires prolonged access to MR gantry, which makes it an unfeasible procedure for a vast majority of surgeons.

In addition, the learning curve to perform a laser ablation in MR gantry can be very steep.

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