Background: Previous human-scale porcine liver model studies of histotripsy have resulted in ablation zones elongated in the cranial-caudal (CC) dimension due to uninterrupted respiratory motion during the ablation procedure.
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compensate for elongation of hepatic histotripsy ablation zones in the cranial-caudal (CC) dimension caused by respiratory motion by prescribing ellipsoid-shaped ablations.
Methods: Six female swine underwent 12 hepatic histotripsy ablations using a prototype clinical histotripsy system under general anesthesia. Each animal received two ablation zones prescribed as either an ellipsoid (2.5 cm (AP) × 2.5 cm (ML) × 1.7 cm (CC), prescribed volume = 5.8 cc) or a sphere (2.5 cm all dimensions, prescribed volume 8.2 cc). Ventilatory tidal volume was held constant at 400 cc for all ablations. Post-procedure MRI was followed by sacrifice and gross and microscopic histology.
Results: Ablations on MRI were slightly larger than prescribed in all dimensions. Ellipsoid plan ablations (2.8 × 3.0 × 3.1 cm, volume 13.2 cc, sphericity index 0.987) were closer to prescribed volume than spherical plan ablations (2.9 × 3.1 × 3.7 cm, volume 17.1 cc, sphericity index 0.953). Ellipsoid plan ablations were more spherical than sphere plan ablations, but the difference did not reach statistical significance (p = .0.06). Pathologic analysis confirmed complete necrosis within the center of each ablation zone with no widening of the zone of partial ablation on the superior and inferior as compared to the lateral borders (p = .0.22).
Conclusion: Altering ablation zone prescription shape when performing hepatic histotripsy ablations can partially mitigate respiratory motion effects to achieve the desired ablation shape and volume.
Keywords: Ablation; Histotripsy; Liver; Oncology; Respiratory motion.