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

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Surgical Technology
• Computational Modeling

Background:

• Cryosurgery is a minimally invasive technique for tissue ablation.
• Optimizing cryosurgery requires understanding heat transfer and fluid dynamics.
• Prostatic cryosurgery aims to eradicate cancerous and non-cancerous tissues.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate optimized ablation outcomes in prostatic cryosurgery.
• To analyze the effectiveness of different liquid nitrogen (LN2) cryoprobe configurations.
• To develop a computationally efficient 3D model for cryosurgery simulation.

Main Methods:

• Applied a transient 3D two-phase refrigerant flow model for LN2 boiling.
• Utilized a bioheat transfer model to simulate tissue freezing.
• Employed a defect function considering ablated healthy and non-ablated target tissues.

Main Results:

• Identified an optimal configuration with three LN2 cryoprobes positioned isoscelesly.
• Investigated temperature distributions and profiles within the tissue for the optimal configuration.
• Demonstrated the accuracy and computational efficiency of the 3D coupled model.

Conclusions:

• The 3D coupled model accurately simulates prostatic cryosurgery with low computational cost.
• Isosceles placement of three LN2 cryoprobes offers an optimized ablation outcome.
• This modeling approach can aid in treating various diseases using cryosurgery.