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Updated: Apr 6, 2026
Thermal Ablation for the Treatment of Abdominal Tumors
Published on: March 7, 2011
Radiation dose during CT-guided percutaneous cryoablation of renal tumors: Effect of a dose reduction protocol
Vincent M Levesque1, Paul B Shyn1, Kemal Tuncali1
1Division of Abdominal Imaging and Intervention, Department of Radiology, Brigham & Women's Hospital, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Purpose:
To estimate and compare the radiation dose using a standard protocol and that of a dose reduction protocol in patients undergoing CT-guided percutaneous cryoablation of renal tumors.
Materials And Methods:
An IRB-approved, HIPAA-compliant retrospective study of 97 CT-guided cryoablation procedures to treat a solitary renal tumor in each of 97 patients (64 M, 33 F; range 31-84 yrs) was performed. Fifty patients were treated using a standard dose protocol (kVp=120, mean mAs=180, monitoring scans every 3 min during freezes), and an additional 47 patients were treated using a dose reduction protocol (kVp=100, mean mAs=100, monitoring scans less frequently than every 3 min during freezes). Multiple Wilcoxon Mann-Whitney (rank-sum) tests were used to compare dose-length product (DLP) between the two groups. Fisher's exact test was used to compare technique effectiveness at 12 months post ablation between the two groups.
Results:
Median DLP for the standard protocol group was 4833.5 mGy*cm (range, 1667-8267 mGy*cm); median DLP for the dose reduction group was 2648 mGy*cm (range, 850-7169 mGy*cm), significantly less than that of the standard protocol group (p<0.01). The technique effectiveness for the dose reduction group was not significantly different from that of the standard protocol group at 12 month follow up (p=0.434).
Conclusion:
The radiation dose during percutaneous CT-guided cryoablation of renal tumors was substantial in both the standard and the dose reduction groups; however, it was significantly lower with the protocol change that reduced dose parameters and decreased the number of CT scans.
