Planning of renal tumor ablation aided by numerical modeling

This paper reports numerical simulation results on the radio frequency (RF) renal ablation procedure, using a simplified model for the kidney. The case study assumes that one of the extremities of the renal vein is affected by a small tumor (less than 3 cm in diameter) that has to be removed by heating it up above the physiological limit of viability. The local heating process is obtained using a four electrodes array, positioned by the targeted tumor. The kidney tissue is seen as a porous media and the associated hemodynamics is governed by Navier-Stokes momentum balance, for the large blood vessels and their first and second order ramifications, and Brinkman momentum balance, for the blood transfer between the renal arteries and veins, momentum balance.