Experimental Studies on Non-thermal Irreversible Electroporation in Tissue

In the past, irreversible electroporation of tissue was studied for two applications: a) in the food industry for food processing and b) as a means to determine the upper limit of electrical parameters for reversible electroporation of tissue. Non-thermal irreversible electroporation (NTIRE) is a new modality for tissue ablation that applies the irreversible electroporation pulses in such a way as to avoid thermal damage to tissue components while irreversible affecting the cells. This particular aspect of irreversible electroporation was not studied before. This chapter reviews experimental studies on non-thermal irreversible electroporation in tissue done by our group. The studies will be discussed in the chronological order in which they were done. In all the studies discussed in this chapter, treatment planning was done prior to performing the experiments. Treatment planning is done to identify the appropriate sequence of electrical pulses, which produce the desired cell ablation without causing damage to the remaining tissue structure, [1]. It is not trivial as the range of parameters used can vary from tissue type to tissue type and from circumstance to circumstance. In the absence of other information, in these earlier studies modeling the electrical field and the temperature distribution caused by Joule heating during the application of the electrical pulses identified the treatment planning. It is possible that in the future it will be also valuable to model that change in pH in the tissue, as they could also affect the tissue components, e.g. [2]. It should be emphasized that when thermal or chemical damage do occur during irreversible electroporation, the outcome of the procedure will most likely be different from those described in this chapter.

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