Preliminary clinical application of the robot‐assisted CT‐guided irreversible electroporation ablation for the treatment of pancreatic head carcinoma

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the feasibility and safety of a robot-guided irreversible electroporation (IRE) ablation system for the treatment of pancreatic head carcinoma. METHODS: A total of 20 cases with pancreatic head carcinoma were divided into two groups: 11 cases in group A with manual probe placement and 9 cases in group B with robotic navigated probe placement. The two groups were compared in terms of planning time before puncture, puncture time, the total time of electrode deployment, number of scans, and punctual accuracy of the single electrode. RESULTS: Each probe was successfully punctured, and no complications were detected. P-values were calculated for all the parameters, using the SPSS 25.0 software and the t test. CONCLUSIONS: The new robot can reduce the total operating time as compared to the manual probe placement with the same accuracy in the IRE of pancreatic head carcinoma.