Patent ID: 8882759

Claim:
An ablation system, comprising: a generator adapted to selectively provide ablation energy to an ablation probe; an ablation probe operably coupled to the generator and adapted to receive the ablation energy from the generator and to deliver the ablation energy to tissue; a controller operatively coupled to the generator, including: a processor; a memory operatively coupled to the processor; a database operatively coupled to the processor and configured to store a tissue status lookup table having a first dimension representative of tissue temperature, a second dimension representative of tissue permittivity, and a third dimension representative of tissue loss factor; a tissue sensor probe operatively coupled to the controller and having a distal end and a proximal end, including: a dielectric sensor disposed at a distal end of the tissue sensor probe and configured to transmit a test signal to tissue, receive at least a portion of a reflected test signal from tissue, and provide a dielectric sensor signal corresponding to a measured tissue permittivity and loss factor; a temperature sensor disposed at a distal end of the tissue sensor probe and configured to provide a temperature sensor signal corresponding to a measured temperature of tissue; wherein a dielectric sensor circuit is operatively coupled to the processor and is adapted to receive the dielectric sensor signal from the tissue sensor probe; and a temperature sensor circuit is operatively coupled to the processor and is adapted to receive the temperature sensor signal from the tissue sensor probe; and wherein the processor is configured to utilize each of the measured tissue temperature, the measured tissue permittivity, and the measured tissue loss factor as indices into the tissue status lookup table to identify a tissue status.