Ex Vivo Experiment on Radiofrequency Liver Ablation with Saline Infusion through a Screw-Tip Cannulated Electrode

Abstract Purpose: To investigate whether radiofrequency (RF) therapy with hypertonic saline infusion through a hollow screw-tip electrode can cause a lesion size suitable for liver tumor ablation. Materials and methods: RF tissue ablation of 180 sites was performed by using a hollow screw-tip electrode in 40 freshly excised swine livers. Under both power and temperature control modes, the ablation effects with and without various regimes of 5% hypertonic saline (1 ml/min) prior to and/or during the procedure were compared by measuring the size of lesions at dissection and confirmed by T1 and T2 weighted magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Results: The maximal lesion diameter of 5.5 cm was reached at 30 W with saline infusion 1 min prior to and during 12 min of ablation. The smaller sizes ( P