Ultrasound-guided percutaneous microwave ablation of adrenal metastasis: Preliminary results

Figures & data

Table 1.  Summary of patients and tumours treated with MW ablation.

Patient no.	Age/sex	Tumour Size (cm)	Tumour location	Tumour pathology	MW ablation sessions	MW ablation time (s)	Follow-up duration (months)	Local recurrence
1	76/F	2.9	Right	Clear-cell renal carcinoma	1	300	31	No
2	47/M	4.5	Right	Hepatocellular carcinoma	1	720	25	No
3	53/M	2.3	Right	Hepatocellular carcinoma	1	240	19	No
4	51/M	4.4	Left	Hepatocellular carcinoma	2	720	13	No
5	69/M	3.3	Right	Hepatocellular carcinoma	1	420	8	No

Note: Patient 4 received two MW ablation sessions, the first session lasted for 600 seconds, the second session lasted for 120 seconds.

Figure 1. Ultrasound-guided percutaneous MW ablation in a 53-year-old man with right adrenal metastasis (arrow) from hepatocellular carcinoma. (a) Greyscale ultrasound shows a hypoechoic tumour in the right adrenal gland before MW ablation. (b) The tumour (arrow) showed rich enhancement on contrast-enhanced ultrasound. (c) MW antenna (arrowhead) was percutaneously placed into the adrenal tumour (arrow) under real-time ultrasound guidance. (d) The tumour (arrow) became hyperechoic right after MW ablation.

Figure 2. MW ablation in a 76-year-old woman who had a right adrenal metastasis from clear-cell renal carcinoma two years after right nephrectomy. (a) Before treatment the tumour was slightly enhanced on contrast-enhanced MRI. No enhancement was observed on contrast-enhanced MRI at three months (b), one year (c) and two years (d) after MW ablation, the ablated tumour gradually shrank over time.

Figure 3. MW ablation in a 51-year-old man who had a left adrenal metastasis from hepatocellular carcinoma. (a) Before treatment the tumour was enhanced on contrast-enhanced MRI. No enhancement was observed on contrast-enhanced MRI at three months (b), six months (c) and one year (d) after MW ablation.