Articles: surgery.
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Minimally invasive therapies (such as radiofrequency ablation) are becoming more commonly used in the United States for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinomas and liver metastases. Unfortunately, these procedures suffer from high recurrence rates of hepatocellular carcinoma ( approximately 34-55%) or metastases following ablation therapy. The ability to perform real-time temperature imaging while a patient is undergoing radiofrequency ablation could provide a significant reduction in these recurrence rates. ⋯ Both sound speed and thermal expansion changes of the tissue-mimicking material were measured experimentally and utilized to generate the calibration curve relating temperature to the displacement gradient. Temperature maps were obtained, and specific regions-of-interest on the temperature maps were compared to invasive temperatures obtained using fiber-optic temperature probes at the same location. Temperature elevation during a radiofrequency ablation procedure on the phantom was successfully tracked to within +/-0.5 degrees C.
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Med Biol Eng Comput · Aug 2007
Simulation of an anterior spine instrumentation in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis using a flexible multi-body model.
Anterior spinal instrumentation is an alternative option to posterior instrumentation for surgical treatment of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). However, optimal instrumentation configuration and strategies are not yet clearly defined. A biomechanical kinematic model using flexible mechanism was developed to study instrumentation strategies. ⋯ The validated model was used to find optimal instrumentation configurations for one patient prior to surgery. Six strategies were tested out of which the optimal one was identified while two were not recommended for surgery since screw forces exceeded published pullout forces. This study demonstrates the possibility to simulate anterior spine instrumentations.