Introduction

Excerpt

I am grateful to my colleagues and co-contributors for several excellent papers on the current status of radiofrequency ablation (RFA). This Feature Section opens with a superb discussion of the underlying principles, current technology, and available equipment, with a description of the histopathologic findings of thermal coagulation necrosis. Thereafter, Lencioni et al. discuss the role of RFA in the control of hepatocellular carcinoma, and Rhim et al. describe the complications of using RFA to manage this disease. The focus then moves to metastatic disease in the liver, with one paper reporting on the use of RFA to manage colorectal liver metastases, one describing the role of RFA relative to other techniques for the control of neuroendocrine metastases, including the Swedish experience of intraoperative RFA complemented by the Middlesex experience of using percutaneous RFA to manage neuroendocrine metastases. Then we move beyond the liver to consider RFA in the kidney, and the final paper discusses future applications of RFA in other intra-abdominal sites, notably the adrenal gland, pelvic recurrence, and lymphadenopathy. …