Bronchoscopy-guided radiofrequency ablation as a potential novel therapeutic tool

¹ First Dept of Internal Medicine and
² Dept of Anesthesiology, Shinshu University School of Medicine, 3-1-1 Asahi Matsumoto 390-8621, Japan

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: tsushima{at}hsp.md.shinshu-u.ac.jp.

	Abstract

The aim was to assess the safety of bronchoscopy-guided radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and compare the effectiveness between new internal cooled-RFA and standard non-cooled-RFA.

Normal lungs from sheep were used (n=6). Internal cooled-RFA and standard non-cooled-RFA were set to assess the most suitable RFA conditions such as power output, flow rate and ablation time. Internal cooled-RFA was then applied under the most optimal conditions of power output and flow rate for 15, 30, 60 and 120 seconds, and two flow water temperatures as room temperature (RT) water or cold water. Criteria for the most appropriate conditions are set over 15 seconds of ablation time and 50°C of the tip's temperature.

Internal cooled-RFA had no complications. Standard non-cooled-RFA was complicated with bronchial bleeding after RFA. On the basis of the histologic findings, average temperature and average output, the most appropriate conditions of the cooled-RFA were a power output of 30 W and flow rate of 30 or 40 mL·min^-1. The cooled-RFA using cold water caused a smaller, more discrete lesion compared with that using RT water.

Bronchoscopy-guided internal cooled-RFA was an effective, safe and feasible procedure that could become a potential therapeutic tool in managing lung pathology.