BRACHYTHERAPY FIDUCIAL NEEDLE FIXATION SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20140309525A1
• Filed: 06/24/2014
• Published: 10/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cowles Ventures LLC
• Original Assignee: Breast Microseed, LLC
• Inventors: PITMAN, Charlie
• Granted Patent: US 10,449,387 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/424
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 17/3403 Needle locating or guiding means guides for suture needles A61B17/0482; guiding or tracking by nuclear magnetic resonance G01R33/285
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/3411 with a plurality of holes, e.g. holes in matrix arrangement
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2090/3908 Soft tissue, e.g. breast tissue
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2090/3925 ultrasonic
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2090/3991 having specific anchoring means to fixate the marker to the tissue, e.g. hooks
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/061 Determining position of a probe within the body employing means separate from the probe, e.g. sensing internal probe position employing impedance electrodes on the surface of the body A61B1/00158 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/0841 for locating instruments
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 90/39 Markers, e.g. radio-opaque or breast lesions markers
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 2005/1012 Templates or grids for guiding the introduction of sources
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1007 Arrangements or means for the introduction of sources into the body
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1015 Treatment of resected cavities created by surgery, e.g. lumpectomy
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1027 Interstitial radiation therapy
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1049 for verifying the position of the patient with respect to the radiation beam

Abstract

A mechanism to facilitate the insertion of radioactive sources/source strands into soft tissue, such as breast tissue, and a method that utilizes this mechanism with the goal of improving the reproducibility of the procedure and ensuring that the sources are reliably and consistently inserted in an exact position per a patient prescription treatment plan from patient to patient as well as improve the ease-of-use of the device and procedure are provided.

Claims

1. A method for adjuvant partial breast irradiation using the fiducial needle fixation mechanism, the method comprising:

providing an operating table with a patient lying of the operating table and one or more stereotactic armatures attached to the operating table;

inserting, guided by medical imaging, one or more fiducial fixation needles into a lumpectomy site;

attaching, in an unlocked position, a fiducial needle fixation device to the one or more fiducial fixation needles;

locking the fiducial needle fixation device so that the position of each fiducial fixation needle is fixed relative to the fiducial needle fixation device;

attaching the locked fiducial needle fixation device into one of the stereotactic armatures to fix the position of the locked fiducial needle fixation device and the one or more fiducial fixation needles relative to the operating table; and

inserting a brachytherapy needle containing one or more radioactive sources through the fiducial needle fixation device into the lumpectomy site of the patient.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein attaching the locked fiducial needle fixation device into one of the stereotactic armatures further comprises threadably attaching, using an attachment ball device, the locked needle fixation device to one of the stereotactic armatures.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein locking the fiducial needle fixation device further comprises tightening a locking pin using a fiducial needle lock.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein attaching the fiducial needle fixation device to the one or more fiducial fixation needles further comprises inserting the one or more fiducial fixation needles through a template and inserting the brachytherapy needle through the template.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein inserting the one or more fiducial fixation needles further comprises visualizing each fiducial fixation needle by medical imaging using a visualization feature.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein visualizing each fiducial fixation needle further comprises generating ultrasound energy to visualize each fiducial fixation needle.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising anchoring each fiducial fixation needle into tissue using a retention feature.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein anchoring each fiducial fixation needle further comprising using one or more user deployable projection that anchors the fiducial needle into the tissue.