Fiber Optic Sensor for Real-time Monitoring of Freezing–Thawing Cycle in Cryosurgery

Cryosurgery/cryotherapy is a widely used, freezing–thawing technique for the renewal or destruction of pathological tissues by applying localized rapid cooling; however, it still relies on the subjective “expert knowledge” of the physicians without, up to now, real-time monitoring of the treatment. This work focused on assessing the depth of freezing using optical transmission and backscattering measurements from frozen/unfrozen porcine ex-vivo skin samples. An optical fiber-array sensor was subsequently developed to determine the depth of freezing and the associated kill zone during freeze–thawing cycles with sub-millimeter accuracy within the skin tissue.