Bone drilling by using microwave ablation; FEM investigation

Bone drilling by using heat energy from microwave is a promising research issue and has been proposed by some researcher. However, there are still some interesting topics remaining to be investigated especially in term of a temperature variation during burning or drilling process and a prediction of an extreme burning size or drilling diameter. In this paper, we propose an FEM investigation of bone drilling by using microwave thermal ablation emphasizing on a temperature distribution pattern and temperature variation at a hot spot of a cutting-end antenna. Bone phantom was modeled as two solid layers as cortical and bone marrow part. Simulation was implemented in three different applicator positions in bone model as a top surface, middle and near marrow. The obtained simulation results give us useful information to design more suitable and practicable applicator for heat pattern focusing in a compact bone tissue and also encourage us to validate with a bovine bone in near future.