Computational study of the performance of single applicators and antenna arrays used in liver microwave ablation

Microwave ablation (MWA) is a minimally-invasive modality used in the treatment of non-resectable tumours. In this paper, a comparison between different types of coaxial antennas and arrays is carried out in the interest of studying their ability to ablate liver tissue. It is found that double-slot coaxial antennas create a more localised heating near their tip compared to single-slot ones. Additionally, when it comes to arrays, triangular configurations create nearly spherical ablation zones, whereas square configurations rather flat zones. The study is extended to the modelling of clinically-relevant cases; the contribution of different tissue properties in determining the ablation zone is investigated. It is found that malignant tissues can be heated faster, and to a larger extend, and they do not experience a maximum-dimension plateau for increasing heating durations, contrary to healthy ones.