The Emprint™ Ablation System with Thermosphere™ Technology: One of the Newer Next-Generation Microwave Ablation Technologies

Microwave ablation is a recent development in the field of tumor ablation that uses electromagnetic waves to establish a microwave near-field with direct tissue heating. Some of the limitations of the earlier generation devices had been unpredictable size and shape of the ablation zones with changes in the surrounding tissue environment as well as differences across various different tissue types. The Emprint Ablation System with Thermosphere Technology (Covidien, Boulder, CO) is the most recent generation ablation system that attempts to produce predictable large spherical zones of ablation despite varying tissue environments across different tissue types such as liver, lung, and bone to name a few. This article will discuss these recent device developments as well as review some basic microwave characteristics.