Anil Shetty1,
Hiroumi Kitajima2, 3, Tracy E. Powell2,
3, Michael A. Bowen2, 3, Sherif G. Nour2,
3
1Visualase
Inc, Houston, TX, United States; 2Department of Radiology and
Imaging Sciences, Emory University Hospital, Atlanta, GA, United States; 3Interventional
MRI Program, Emory University Hospital, Atlanta, GA, United States
This report demonstrated the feasibility of percutaneous laser ablation for hepatic tumors with real-time MRI monitoring within a dedicated interventional MRI suite. The online feedback of the ablation, along with combination of multiple fibers and pullbacks, allowed creation of large ablation volumes. The real-time monitoring, along with automatic shutoff mechanism with triggering of safety limits, protected adjacent critical structures. Advantages of using MR guided laser ablation include ability to ablate lesions which are in locations that are difficult to access and ability to ablate lesions which are only conspicuous on certain MR weighted sequences.