HIFU Therapy Compared with Other Thermal Ablation Methods in a Perfused Organ Model

Therapy with high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) has been shown to be both safe and clinically practical in a growing number of patient studies for a variety of different target organs. Especially in cancer therapy there are comparable ablation methods like radio frequency (RFA) or laser (LITT) ablation, which are clinically more accepted. In an ongoing study we compare HIFU with RF‐ and laser ablation under MRI guidance in a perfused organ model. All evaluated techniques were appropriate to induce defined and localized ablation necrosis in the renal cortex. Our HIFU system and the laser system were completely MRI compatible. The tested RF‐ system showed local needle artefacts and disturbed the MR images during operation. The ablation rate of HIFU using a spot scanning technique was clearly lower compared to the other ablation techniques. However, advanced HIFU scanning methods might overcome this limitation. In addition HIFU is the only complete non‐invasive ablation technique.