MRI-Guided Liver Tumor Ablation-A Workflow Design Prototype

Thermal ablation procedures such as radiofrequency ablation have become a clinically accepted treatment method for liver tumors. Using image guidance like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a needle-shaped instrument is navigated to the target position aiming at a complete destruction of the focal liver malignancies. Planning the intervention, navigating the instrument to the target position, and monitoring the ablation of the malignant tissue are currently three separated steps during MRI guided interventions. This is hampering the clinical workflow and results in an unnecessary amount of additional work for the clinicians due to data export and import or mental data transfer. We introduce a prototype for a combined workflow design for interventional radiology using MRI guidance. The prototype is able to guide the radiologist during planning, navigation and monitoring the ablation without manual data transfer. Evaluation with four clinical experts shows a strongly positive trend to the combined workflow design.