Experimental Surgical Treatment Options
Most surgeons consider the following therapeutic options to still be in the early stages of development. These technologies are often reserved for patients where other forms of treatment have not worked successfully.
High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU)In HIFU therapy, ultrasound beams are focused on diseased tissue. Due to the significant energy presented at the focus, temperature within the tissue can rise to 85°C, destroying the tissue by coagulation necrosis. Each Sonication of the beams theoretically treats a precisely defined portion of the targeted tissue. In practice, cold spots, beam distortion, and beam mis-alignments are impediments to finely controlled treatments. This technology can achieve precise ablation of diseased tissue, therefore is sometimes called HIFU surgery. Anesthesia is not required, but should be recommended.
Complications arising from HIFU come from the difficulty in use of the device to target the precise area. As with other types of ablation, nearby organs and healthy tissue can be damaged through imprecise targeting or the lack of precision in the ability to control thermal spread. HIFU has the potential to be used non-invasively by focusing the energy directly through the skin; but, this has yet to be perfected and the treatment is largely considered experimental at the current time. |
© 2012 Sinaiko Urology
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