Microwave medical devices

This article describes several new microwave medical devices that either were or are being developed at MMTC, Inc. in cooperation with the following institutions: Celsion Corporation, Columbia, Maryland (microwave balloon catheters); Montefiore Medical Center (MMC), Bronx, New York (microwave balloon catheters, dual microwave antennas, and microwave poration); and the University of California at San Francisco (conformal array antennas). The individuals who developed these devices have previously published patents and articles that contain most of the material presented here. All of the medical devices described depend on the ability of microwaves to deeply penetrate into living tissues. The depth to which microwaves can penetrate tissues is primarily a function of the dielectric properties of the tissues and of the frequency of the microwaves. In general, the lower the water content of the tissue, the deeper a wave at a given frequency can penetrate. Also, at the frequencies of interest, the lower the frequency, the deeper is the depth of penetration into tissues with given water content