A new microwave applicator for laparoscopic and robotic liver resection

Area of Science:

• Minimally Invasive Surgery
• Surgical Oncology
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Intraoperative bleeding during robotic hepatic surgery significantly impacts patient recovery and survival.
• Existing robotic surgical devices often lack optimal steerability, efficacy, or accuracy for liver resections.
• Minimizing blood loss is crucial for improving outcomes in liver surgery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the feasibility and performance of a novel steerable microwave resection device.
• To assess the device's potential for minimizing intraoperative blood loss in laparoscopic and robotic liver resections.

Main Methods:

• A steerable microwave device operating at 2.45 GHz was designed considering robotic surgery constraints.
• Advanced electromagnetic and thermal solvers were used for device design, analysis, and optimization.
• Ex vivo experiments on bovine liver validated numerical simulations using a prototype device and recorded thermal lesion data.

Main Results:

• Ex vivo tests demonstrated good agreement with numerical simulations.
• The device exhibited high performance, thermal reliability, and robustness.
• The potential to reduce operation time and blood loss was confirmed.

Conclusions:

• The developed steerable microwave resection device is feasible for laparoscopic and robotic liver surgery.
• The device shows potential for significantly reducing intraoperative blood loss.
• This technology may enhance patient recovery and long-term survival in liver resections.