Mathematical Modeling of Vaporization during Laser-Induced Thermotherapy in Liver Tissue

TL;DR

This paper develops and compares two models that incorporate water vaporization in laser-induced thermotherapy simulations for liver tissue, aiming to improve treatment planning accuracy.

Contribution

It introduces two novel approaches to model vaporization effects in LITT simulations, extending previous models for better accuracy.

Findings

Models incorporating vaporization align better with experimental data

Vaporization significantly impacts temperature distribution during LITT

Enhanced models improve treatment planning precision

Abstract

Laser-induced thermotherapy (LITT) is a minimally invasive method causing tumor destruction due to heat ablation and coagulative effects. Computer simulations can play an important role to assist physicians with the planning and monitoring of the treatment. Our recent study with ex-vivo porcine livers has shown that the vaporization of the water in the tissue must be taken into account when modeling LITT. We extend the model used for simulating LITT to account for vaporization using two different approaches. Results obtained with these new models are then compared with the measurements from the original study.