The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 24, 2004
Filed:
Aug. 27, 2002
Gal Shafirstein, Little Rock, AR (US);
Scott L. Ferguson, Vilonia, AR (US);
Milton Waner, Little Rock, AR (US);
Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, AR (US);
Abstract
An apparatus and method for thermally destroying tumors in which heat is generated by electrical resistance heating conducted to the target tissue. Computerized scanning is used to optimize the geometry of a thermal probe. The probe has a themally conductive tip containing an electrical resistance heating element. The thermally conductive tip is mounted on the end of a fiber that contains the electrical power leads and other electrical leads connecting to monitoring devices associated with the tip. The tip is coated with a thin layer of biocompatible ceramic to avoid coagulated tissue sticking to the tip. The tip has one or more thin, thermally-conductive elements which deploy in stages to coagulate the tumor. The conductive elements may be thin wires or blades. On one embodiment, the conductive elements are composed of a shape memory material that is folded against the tip at lower temperatures and deploys at selected higher temperatures. In another embodiment, the conductive elements are blades that are deployed mechanically. The tip may be provided with a miniature thermocouple to provide temperature feedback information. The resistance heating element may be pyrolytic graphite.