Tissue ablation with irreversible electroporation
AssigneeThe Regents of the University of California
InventorsRafael Davalos, Boris Rubinsky
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Abstract
A new method for the ablation of undesirable tissue such as cells of a cancerous or non-cancerous tumor is disclosed. It involves the placement of electrodes into or near the vicinity of the undesirable tissue through the application of electrical pulses causing irreversible electroporation of the cells throughout the entire area of the undesirable tissue. The electric pulses irreversibly permeate the cell membranes, thereby invoking cell death. The irreversibly permeabilized cells are left in situ and are removed by the body immune system. The amount of tissue ablation achievable through the use of irreversible electroporation without inducing thermal damage is considerable.
Claims58
1-33. (canceled)
A method of ablating tissue cells by non-thermal irreversible electroporation, comprising the steps of:
- identifying tissue to be ablated;
- placing one or more electrodes near the identified tissue;
- applying electrical pulses through the one or more electrodes in an amount which is sufficient to induce irreversible electroporation of cells of the identified tissue, but which is insufficient to induce thermal damage to substantially all of the identified tissue such that the identified tissue cells are killed by irreversible electroporation.
A method of ablating tissue cells by non-thermal irreversible electroporation, comprising the steps of:
- identifying tissue to be ablated in a living mammal;
- placing a plurality of electrodes near the identified tissue;
- and
- applying, through the placed electrodes, electrical pulses to the identified tissue in the living mammal, in an amount which has been predetermined to be sufficient to induce irreversible electroporation of substantially all cells of the identified tissue, but which has been predetermined to be insufficient to induce thermal damage to substantially all cells of the identified tissue such that substantially all of the identified tissue cells are ablated by non-thermal irreversible electroporation, wherein each of the electrical pulses has a pulse duration of at least 5 microseconds.
A method of ablating tissue cells by a combination of non-thermal irreversible electroporation and thermal damage, comprising:
- identifying a zone of tissue to be ablated;
- placing one or more electrodes near the identified tissue zone;
- applying electrical pulses through the one or more electrodes in an amount which is:
- sufficient to induce irreversible electroporation of cells in a first selected portion of the identified tissue zone, but which is insufficient to induce thermal damage in the first selected portion, and
- sufficient to induce thermal damage in a second selected portion of the identified tissue zone,
- such that the tissue cells in the identified tissue zone are killed selectively by irreversible electroporation and selectively by thermal damage.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.