Topic Highlight
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Nov 8, 2015; 7(25): 2578-2589
Published online Nov 8, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i25.2578
Microwave ablation of hepatocellular carcinoma
Guido Poggi, Nevio Tosoratti, Benedetta Montagna, Chiara Picchi
Guido Poggi, Benedetta Montagna, Chiara Picchi, Oncology and Hepatology Unit, Institute of Care Città di Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Nevio Tosoratti, R and E Unit, HS Hospital Service SpA, 04011 Aprilia, Italy
Author contributions: Poggi G and Tosoratti N performed the majority of the writing; Montagna B and Picchi C prepared tables and contributed to the writing of the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest associated with any of the authors contributed their efforts in this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Guido Poggi, MD, Chief, Oncology and Hepatology Unit, Institute of Care Città di Pavia, Via Parco Vecchio, 27, 27100 Pavia, Italy. guidopoggi64@gmail.com
Telephone: +39-382-433631 Fax: +39-382-576821
Received: April 30, 2015
Peer-review started: May 8, 2015
First decision: July 17, 2015
Revised: August 17, 2015
Accepted: October 16, 2015
Article in press: October 19, 2015
Published online: November 8, 2015
Processing time: 192 Days and 22.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: In clinical practice there is an increasing interest in the use of microwave radiations as ablative technique for the treatment of small and intermediate hepatocellular carcinoma nodules. No literature data are already available about a direct comparison between radiofrequency ablation and microwave ablation; in this review we provide an extensive and detailed overview on the technical and engineering aspects of microwave devices, and we critically expose the most relevant clinical data about the experience in microwave ablation, also by making a comparison with radiofrequency ablation.