Effect of the Probe Geometry on Dynamics of Cavitation

摘要

Cavitation bubbles accompany explosive evaporation of water after pulsed energy deposition during endosurgery. Bubbles collapsing at the tip of an endo-probe produce a powerful and damaging water jet propagating forward in the axial direction of the probe. We demonstrate that formation of this flow and associated tissue damage can be prevented by application of the concave probes that slow the propagation of the back boundary of the bubble. A similar effect can be achieved by positioning an obstacle to the flow, such as a ring or a pick tip in a close proximity to the back, side or front of the tip. Dependence of the flow dynamics on geometry of the probe was studied using fast flash photography and particle velocimetry. With a flat tip a maximal jet velocity of 80 m/s is achieved at a pulse energy of 0.12 mJ, while with an optimized concave probe the jet is completely stopped. The maximal distance between the probe and the tissue at which cells were affected by the water jet was measured using choriallantoic membrane of a chick embryo and Propidium Iodide staining. Changing the tip geometry from flat or convex to an optimized concave shape resulted in reduction of the damage distance by a factor of 4 with pulse energies varying from 0.02 to 0.75 mJ. Elimination of the water jet dramatically improves precision and safety of the pulsed endosurgery reducing the axial damage zone to a size of the cavitation bubble at its maximal expansion.