Finite volume analysis of the temperature distribution during transurethral resection of the prostate

Abstract

Abstract In prostate surgery the transurethral resection (TURP) represents the gold standard which is based on monopolar (M-TURP) and bipolar techniques (TURis). The investigation of the thermal behavior is one of the most important research topics in this type of surgery procedures. Here monopolar systems have been well investigated. The research on electrical and thermal behavior of bipolar systems was initiated about two decades ago. Previous studies focused on thermal behavior according to Joule heating, but did not gain information about the temperature distribution close to the active electrode of the resectoscope. Therefore, the numerical simulations on the temperature distribution near the active electrode of the resectoscope with a finite volume method are presented in this study, which takes blood perfusion into account. The results have shown that the influence of the blood perfusion process can be ignored for regions which are more than 0.4 mm away from the active electrode. This is based on two different blood perfusion models.