LABORATORY EVALUATION OF ICE FORMATION AROUND A 3-MM ACCUPROBE

There has been a resurgence of cryoablation for localized prostate can cer following several recent technological advances, most notably the monitoring of ice formation by real time transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) . However, ultrasound can only identify the near surface of the ice an d the sonographer is blind to the remainder of the ice formation and i ts three-dimension!al geometry. Moreover, there are no sonographic sig ns for the temperature distribution within the iceball. To be successf ul, therefore, the cryosurgeon must understand the growth of iceballs around various combinations of cryoprobes. We report on the geometry a nd thermal behavior of iceballs formed around one, two, three, and fiv e 3.4-mm cryoprobes supplied by supercooled liquid nitrogen from a com mercially available cryogenic unit, the Cryomedical Sciences Accuprobe . (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.