Abstract:
Extremely low temperature will generate around the urethra during cryosurgery, which could probably result in cryoinjury in urethra. However, the urethral warmer (heated by water) existing in the current market is lacking of offering a precise control over the temperature, which gives rise to post complications in prostate. In this paper, an electrical protective urethral heater was reformed from standard urethral catheter with the aim to assist doctors’ operation for an effective therapy. A sophisticated temperature controller was used to regulate the heating behavior of the urethral heater. The impact of different heating powers on the temperature of the wall of urethra was studied, which was simulated and tested
in vitro and compared with urethral warmer. During the trials
in vitro, the lowest temperature at the surface of urethral heater is higher than the sub-lethal temperature (−22 ℃) under the heating power of 9 W and two cryoprobes after cryoablation for 30 min. Therefore, urethral heater is an effective way to protect urethra from cryoinjury.