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Type:
Educational Exhibit
Keywords:
Cancer, Ablation procedures, CT, Lung
Authors:
N. Bashar, S. L. Smith; Ipswich/UK
DOI:
10.1594/ecr2014/C-0624
Background
Radiofrequency ablation is an image guided,
minimally invasive technique used to destroy tumour tissue.
Current is passed from an electrode through the patient’s tissues and is grounded via skin pads.
Ionic agitation in the tissues adjacent to the needle tip produces heating.
Cell death occurs if heating of over 50 degrees is achieved for 5 minutes.
Current applications include local treatment of lung,
liver,
renal and bone tumours.
There is growing evidence of its efficacy and in recent published guidance the Royal College of Radiologists have suggested that over 5000 patients a year will be treated in the UK (Ref 1).
The National Institute for Clinical Excellence have issued several sets of guidance covering RFA (Ref 2).
The learning curve for this technique is steep and we present here a series of practical tips which we hope will be of use to other radiologists considering developing an RFA service.