Optimization of prostatic cryosurgery with multi-cryoprobe based on refrigerant flow

Cryosurgery is a promising novel minimally invasive surgical technique to eradicate carcinoma and non-carcinoma tissues by freezing. In this research, we applied a transient 3D two-phase refrigerant flow model inside the LN₂ boiling chamber as well as a bioheat transfer model inside the tissues to evaluate the optimized ablation outcome during prostatic cryosurgery. For the evaluation of the scenarios, a defect function was used that considers non-ablated target tissue (prostate/cancer tissue) as well as ablated healthy tissue, in which the ablated tissue was evaluated using a temperature threshold. Three different configurations using three LN₂ cryoprobes were analyzed during the modeling study, and the best configuration with the three LN₂ cryoprobes positioned isoscelesly was found. For this configuration, temperature distributions and temperature profiles at specific points within the tissue were investigated numerically. Owing to its low computational cost, the 3D coupled model has an advantage in accurate modeling cryosurgery for curing numerous diseases.