Abstract: The present invention relates to devices and methods for measuring tissue temperature during thermal treatment of a body. More particularly, the present invention relates to a thermal probe comprising a plurality of thermal sensors operable to measure tissue temperatures during thermal treatments such as cryosurgery. Embodiments of the invention enable simultaneous measurements, using a single probe, of temperatures at a plurality of positions within body tissues. A preferred embodiment enables movement of sensors with respect to tissues while the probe is immobilized by being embedded in frozen tissue.

Abstract: The present invention is of systems and methods for MRI-guided cryosurgery. The systems enable a surgeon positioned next to a patient and within an MRI magnetic environment both to monitor progress of a cryosurgical intervention by observing MRI images of the intervention in real time, and to fully control aspects of operation of a cryosurgery apparatus by remotely controlling a fluid supply source positioned external to that magnetic environment, which fluid supply source supplies cryogenic fluids to cryoprobes operable within that magnetic environment, thereby enabling real-time MRI-guided control of a cryoablation process.

Abstract: The present invention relates to devices and methods for measuring tissue temperature during thermal treatment of a body. More particularly, the present invention relates to a thermal probe comprising a plurality of thermal sensors operable to measure tissue temperatures during thermal treatments such as cryosurgery. Embodiments of the invention enable simultaneous measurements, using a single probe, of temperatures at a plurality of positions within body tissues. A preferred embodiment enables movement of sensors with respect to tissues while the probe is immobilized by being embedded in frozen tissue.

Abstract: The present invention relates to use of an introducer for delivering multiple thermal ablation probes to an organic target in a compact configuration, which probes are operable to be deployed in a dispersed configuration characterized by known and accurately maintained distances of one treatment head from another, which distances are substantially maintained during insertion of treatment heads into target tissues. In preferred embodiments, distal portions of deployed probe treatment heads are substantially parallel one to another.

Abstract: The present invention is of a device and method for positioning a plurality of therapeutic probes with respect to a treatment target within a patient. The method comprises the steps of a) utilizing standard imaging modalities to direct an orientation probe to the target, b) rigidly affixing to the inserted orientation probe a template comprising one or more probe guides, thereby orienting template and probe guides with respect to the target, then c) inserting one or more therapeutic probes through probe guides of the template and into the patient, thereby guiding the therapeutic probes to the treatment target.

Abstract: The present invention relates to systems and methods for rendering visible to a cryosurgeon an estimated border of a cryoablation volume, thereby facilitating accurately delimited cryoablation of pathological tissues. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for reading temperature and location information from images provided by imaging modalities and optionally from thermal sensors, inferring from that information the three-dimensional shape and position of a volume of tissue considered reliably cryoablated, and presenting this shape and position information to a cryosurgeon by integrating a visual model of that information with one or more images derived from standard imaging modalities, and displaying for a cryosurgeon that integrated image.

Abstract: The present invention is of systems and methods for MI-guided cryosurgery. The systems enable a surgeon positioned next to a patient and within an MRI, magnetic environment both to monitor progress of a cryosurgical intervention by observing MRI images of the intervention in real time, and to fully control aspects of operation of a cryosurgery Apparatus by remotely controlling a fluid supply source positioned external to that magnetic environment, which fluid supplies cryogenic fluids to cryoprobes operable within that magnetic environment, thereby enabling real-time MRI-guided control of a cryoablation process. A preferred embodiment enables calculation and display of borders of an ablation volume surrounding a cooled cryoprobe in real time, and, further enables automatic control of elements of a cryoablation procedure, which elements are triggered when shape and position of that calculated ablation volume are found to bear a predefined relationship to the shape and position of a predefined treatment target.