An Experimental Study of Thermal Characteristics of Minimally Invasive Cryoprobes in Different Cooling Modes

Abstract

The use of special software for planning and monitoring cryosurgical operations is one of the main ways to improve the efficiency of cryosurgery. To develop such software, it is necessary to have detailed data on the temperature characteristics of cryoprobes. In this work, time dependences of temperature distributions along the working parts of cryoprobes have been experimentally obtained for two types of minimally invasive cryoprobes in different operation modes (continuous coolant feeding with 100% cooling capacity; pulsed feeding with 20, 40, 60, 80% cooling capacity). The obtained results can be used in computer modeling of multi-probe cryosurgical operations with the use of serially produced cryoprobes and for evaluating the efficiency of the cryoprobes being developed.