Non-thermal irreversible electroporation for deep intracranial disorders

Non-thermal irreversible electroporation (N-TIRE) is a new minimally invasive technique to kill undesirable tissue. We build on our previous intracranial studies in order to evaluate the possibility of using N-TIRE for deep intracranial disorders. In this manuscript we describe a minimally invasive computed tomography (CT) guided N-TIRE procedure in white matter. In addition, we report the electric field threshold needed for white matter ablation (630 - 875 V/cm) using four sets of twenty 50 µs pulses at a voltage-to-distance ratio of 1000 V/cm. We also confirm the non-thermal aspect of the technique with real time temperature data measured at the electrode-tissue interface.