Tine-Style HFIRE Electrode for Spherical Ablation Without Muscle Twitching
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing irreversible electroporation (IRE) procedures face challenges such as muscle contractions due to electrical current flow through muscle tissue, leading to prohibitive muscle twitching, and the difficulty in achieving desirable ablation shapes and sizes without thermal damage, particularly with traditional single-needle and bipolar probe configurations.
Innovation Solution
The use of a single-pole tine-style electrode probe with deployable tines and an external surface electrode, combined with HFIRE pulse parameters, to deliver bi-phasic electrical pulses that reduce muscle contractions and create larger, spherical ablation zones with minimal thermal damage, eliminating the need for systemic paralytics.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional single-needle or bipolar probe configurations are used for irreversible electroporation, then the procedure is simpler to perform, but muscle contractions become prohibitive and ablation zones cannot achieve desirable shapes and sizes
Solution Approach 1:
The electrode is segmented into multiple tines (typically 3-6 tines) radiating from a central shaft, allowing the electrical current to be distributed across multiple contact points with the tissue. This segmentation reduces the current density through any single muscle pathway, thereby reducing muscle contractions while maintaining procedural simplicity
Solution Approach 2:
The electrode transitions from a single-point or two-point configuration to a multi-point radial configuration in three-dimensional space. The tines are arranged radially around the central shaft at specific angles and distances, creating a three-dimensional current distribution pattern that reduces muscle contractions while enabling larger, more spherical ablation zones
2Volume of stationary object
If higher energy levels are used with a single probe to increase ablation size, then the ablation zone becomes larger, but thermal damage to the region of interest increases
Solution Approach 1:
The electrical energy is segmented across multiple tines, distributing the current pathways through different tissue routes. This segmentation allows for larger total energy delivery to achieve larger ablation zones while preventing excessive heat concentration at any single location, thereby reducing thermal damage
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses pulsed electrical delivery with specific pulse durations and intervals. The periodic pulsing allows tissue cooling between pulses, preventing cumulative thermal damage while delivering sufficient total energy to create the desired ablation zone size
3Shape
If multiple probes are inserted to achieve desirable ablation shape and size, then the ablation quality improves, but the procedure complexity and difficulty of insertion increase
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple electrode tines that would traditionally require separate probes are merged into a single integrated probe structure. The tines radiate from a common central shaft, allowing all tines to be inserted through a single puncture site while still creating the complex three-dimensional current distribution needed for spherical ablation zones
Solution Approach 2:
The electrode design adds the radial dimension to the insertion approach. Instead of inserting multiple separate probes from different angles, the radial arrangement of tines around the central shaft creates multi-directional current pathways from a single insertion point, achieving spherical ablation geometry without multiple insertions
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach achieves significantly larger, spherical ablation zones with reduced muscle twitching and thermal damage, enhancing procedural efficiency and safety by eliminating the need for muscle relaxants and simplifying probe placement.
Implementation Method 1
Irreversible electroporation (IRE) uses the delivery of a series of brief electric pulses to alter the native transmembrane potential of cell membranes, with the cumulative strength of the pulsing protocol sufficient to result in the formation of irrecoverable nano-scale defects that ultimately result in death of the cell
Implementation Method 2
A key problem with known irreversible electroporation procedures is the occurrence of muscle contractions caused by the flow of electrical current through muscle tissue
Implementation Method 3
Pulse delivery protocols may use irreversible electroporation pulses to treat targeted tissue, sometimes of significant volume, without inducing extracellular-matrix (ECM)-destroying extents of Joule heating—i.e., the structural proteins in a volume of tissue, such as collagen, are preserved
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques for High-Frequency Irreversible Electroporation (HFIRE) using a single-pole tine-style internal device communicating with an external surface electrode are described. In an embodiment, a system for ablating tissue cells in a treatment region of a patient's body by irreversible electroporation without thermally damaging the tissue cells is described. The system includes at least one single-pole electrode probe for insertion into the treatment region, the single-pole electrode probe including one or more tines. The system further includes at least one external surface electrode for placement outside the patient's body and configured to complete a circuit with the single-pole electrode probe. The system also includes a control device for controlling HFIRE pulses to the single-pole tine-style electrode and the skin-surface electrode for the delivery of electric energy to the treatment region. Other embodiments are described and claimed.