Patent ID: 7402160

Claim:
A cryoablation method ensuring complete destruction of tissues within a selected target volume while minimizing destruction of tissues outside said selected target volume, comprising: (a) utilizing cryoprobes to affect cryoablation at a plurality of freezing loci, said loci being of a first type and of a second type, said first type being located adjacent to a surface of said selected target volume and said second type being located at an interior portion of said selected target volume; (b) cooling cryoprobes deployed at loci of said first type to a first degree of cooling and cooling cryoprobes deployed at loci of said second type- to a second degree of cooling, said first degree of cooling being less cooling than said second degree of cooling, thereby affecting wide areas of destruction around each cryoprobe deployed at loci of said second type and narrow areas of destruction around each cryoprobe deployed at loci of said first type, thereby ensuring complete destruction of tissues within a selected target volume while minimizing destruction of tissues outside said selected target volume; and (c) utilizing a planner for planning a dense array, said planner utilizing a three-dimensional model of said target volume to calculate, for a given array of freezing loci, a required temperature and length of cooling time for loci of said first type and for loci of said second type, to affect complete destruction of tissues within said selected target volume while minimizing destruction of issues outside said selected target volume.