Needle guidance device for brachytherapy and method of use
AssigneeCowles Ventures, LLC
InventorsAlvaro Martinez, Mary Ann Slavik, Emily Lin
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A brachytherapy needle guidance device is a device that facilitates the placement of a brachytherapy needle into a treatment region in tissue. This tissue may a breast tissue and the brachytherapy needle may be a fiducial needle. The brachytherapy needle guidance device may have an anchoring feature that anchors the brachytherapy needle guidance device into the tissue once it is properly positioned. The brachytherapy needle guidance device is used by software for treatment planning.
Claims17
A brachytherapy needle guidance device, comprising:
- a hollow body portion having a distal end and a proximal end;
- an anchoring feature that is capable of anchoring the hollow body portion into tissue;
- an imaging feature that is capable of being imaged by a medical imaging modality and used by a treatment planning software to determine a position and orientation of the hollow body portion;
- a feature at the distal end of the hollow body portion that is capable of penetrating the tissue in order to insert the hollow body portion into the tissue;
- and
- wherein a brachytherapy needle is guided into the tissue once the hollow body portion is anchored in the tissue.
A method for guiding a brachytherapy needle, the method comprising:
- providing a needle guidance device having a hollow body portion having a distal end and a proximal end, an anchoring feature that is capable of anchoring the brachytherapy needle guidance device into tissue and a feature at the distal end of the body portion that is capable of penetrating the tissue in order to insert the brachytherapy needle guidance device into the tissue;
- imaging the needle guidance device and using a treatment planning software to plan a set of characteristics of insertion of a brachytherapy needle into the treatment region;
- inserting the needle guidance device into a treatment region in the tissue;
- and
- anchoring, by the anchoring feature of the needle guidance device, the needle guidance device at the treatment region.
A brachytherapy treatment method using needle guidance, the method comprising:
- installing a needle guidance device into a treatment region in a tissue;
- anchoring the needle guidance device at the treatment region;
- determining, by an imaging modality, a position and an orientation of the anchored needle guidance device;
- planning, by a treatment planning software based on the position and orientation of the anchored needle guidance device, a set of characteristics for an insertion of a brachytherapy device into the treatment region;
- inserting the brachytherapy device using the needle guidance device without imaging into the treatment region during insertion of the brachytherapy device;
- and
- placing, using the brachytherapy device, one or more radioactive seeds into the treatment region.
The method of 13, wherein the brachytherapy device further comprises a brachytherapy fiducial needle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.