Liverpool Hospital in Sydney’s south-west has unveiled Australia’s first MRI-guided cryoablation machine, which can freeze and destroy tumours without the need for open surgery.
In this new method, a very thin needle is guided into the tumor under precise MRI imaging guidance and, by injecting compressed gas, it brings the cancerous tissue to a temperature of minus 180 degrees Celsius in a few seconds, completely freezing it.
The biggest advantage of this technology is the very short recovery period; patients are discharged the same day of treatment and do not require a long-term hospitalization.
One of the first patients to benefit from this procedure was a 64-year-old woman whose 9-millimeter tumor in her spine was causing severe pain.
He, for whom open surgery was a high risk, was treated with this method and one day after the operation, announced that he felt no pain and had returned to normal life.
This achievement has placed Australia at the forefront of minimally invasive cancer treatments.
