title: Development of a closed-loop J-T cryoablation device with a long cooling area and multiple expansion parts.
abstract: Cryoablation is a surgical procedure used to freeze defective cells by inserting a low temperature probe into a human body to destroy malignant tissues. Miniaturized Joule-Thomson (J-T) refrigerators are often used to minimize the volume of the cooling device and reduce the destruction zone of normal tissue. The cooling effects of the existing probes are not uniformly generated along the longitudinal direction of the probe, which makes their applications less effective in surgeries of incompetent great saphenous veins (GSVs), where the target cells are distributed over a broad range. Long uniform refrigeration is required across the entire area of the probe to apply the same cooling effects. In this paper, a closed-loop J-T cryoablation probe was designed and fabricated to provide uniform refrigeration over a large area, with multiple expansion parts. Using flow boiling heat transfer, uniform cooling of a 200 mm-long and 0.3 mm thickness piece of target tissue was possible and simulated in a gelatin solution. The developed probe produced a greater than 53 K min(-1) cooling rate and the cooling temperature was below 253 K to satisfy the required cell death conditions.
authors.affiliation: Cryogenic Engineering Laboratory, Division of Mechanical Engineering, School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Systems Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology 373-1, Guseong-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-701, South Korea. Electronic address: cheonkyu_lee@kaist.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Cheonkyu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Cryogenic Engineering Laboratory, Division of Mechanical Engineering, School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Systems Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology 373-1, Guseong-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-701, South Korea.
authors.forename: Seungwhan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Baek
authors.affiliation: Korea Aerospace Research Institute, 115 Gwahang-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-806, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jisung
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Samsung Electronics, Samsung Digital City, Metan-dong, Youngtong-gu, Suwon 443-370, South Korea.
authors.forename: Gyuwan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.affiliation: Cryogenic Engineering Laboratory, Division of Mechanical Engineering, School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Systems Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology 373-1, Guseong-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-701, South Korea.
authors.forename: Sangkwon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Konkuk University Medical Center, Konkuk University School of Medicine 120-1 Neungdong-ro, Hwayang-Dong, Gangjin-gu, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Sang Woo
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D003452:Cryosurgery / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D013696:Temperature
keywords: Closed system; Cryoablation probe; J–T refrigerator; Multiple-expansion; Uniform cooling