The relationship between ablation range and ablation energy in papillary thyroid microcarcinoma: a comparison between microwave ablation and laser ablation

Objectives To study the relationship between the ablation range and applied energy of laser ablation (LA) and microwave ablation (MWA) in papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC).

Methods A total of 201 PTMC patients were treated with LA ( n  = 102) or MWA ( n  = 99) with single-applicator fixed ablation.

The ablation range was determined by contrast-enhanced ultrasound.

The ratios of ablation volume, longitudinal diameter, and orthogonal diameter to ablation energy (R_AV/E, R_AL/E, R_AO/E) were analyzed and compared between MWA and LA.

The effects of PTMC characteristics and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) on ablation efficiency were evaluated by linear regression.

Results The R_AV/E was 0.72 (0.65–0.84) mm^3/J for MWA and 0.48 (0.39–0.54) mm^3/J for LA.

HT was significantly correlated with R_AV/E of LA (coefficient =  − 0.367, p  < 0.0001).

R_AL/E did not differ significantly between MWA and LA (MWA 0.026 mm/J, LA 0.025 mm/J; p  = 0.957).

However, MWA had a greater R_AO/E than LA (MWA 0.014 mm/J, LA 0.012 mm/J; p  < 0.0001).

The plateau values of MWA and LA on the ablation orthogonal diameter were 10.7 mm and 8.69 mm, respectively.

Conclusions MWA showed a higher R_AV/E than LA.

More intuitively, MWA had a better ablation performance than LA on the orthogonal axis rather than the longitudinal axis.

Theoretically, MWA and LA could achieve complete ablation of ≤ 6.70 mm and ≤ 4.69 mm PTMC separately by single-applicator fixed ablation considering a unilateral 2-mm safe margin.

HT had a negative effect on LA but not on MWA.

Clinical relevance statement This study establishes strong connections between ablation energy and ablation range in papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) in vivo, possibly contributing to the supplementation of the PTMC Ablation Consensus or Guidelines and providing a scientific basis for choosing clinical ablation parameters in PTMC.

Key Points • Both microwave ablation (MWA) and laser ablation (LA) have excellent performance on the ablation longitudinal axis (easily exceeding 10 mm) for papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) .

• MWA performed much better than LA on the ablation orthogonal axis .

• MWA and LA are expected to achieve complete ablation of  ≤  6.70 mm and  ≤  4.69 mm PTMC separately by single-applicator fixed ablation considering a unilateral 2-mm safe margin .