DETERMINING ABLATION PROBE CONFIGURATION

Disclosed herein is a medical system (100, 300) comprising a processor (104). Execution of the machine executable (112) instructions causes a processor (104) to: receive (200) three-dimensional medical image data (114) descriptive of a subject (318); receive (202) a desired ablation volume (116), wherein the desired ablation volume is registered to the three-dimensional medical image data; receive (204) one or more protected volumes (118); generate (206) a discrete set of ablation probe positions (120); receive (208) a discrete set of ablation patterns (130); initialize (210) a composite ablation binary mask (122); and initialize (212) a sequential ablation probe configuration list (124). Execution of the machine executable instructions further causes the processor to iteratively generate the sequential ablation probe configuration list by repeatedly: determining (214) an unablated volume (126) by comparing the composite ablation binary mask to the desired ablation volume; determining (216) a chosen ablation probe configuration (128) using a chosen objective function (132) dependent upon the one or more protected volumes, the unablated volume, the discrete set of ablation patterns, and the discrete set of ablation probe positions; update (218) the composite ablation binary mask by calculating a union between the composite ablation binary mask and the one of the discrete set of ablation patterns located at the one of the discrete set of ablation probe positions; and add (220) the chosen ablation probe configuration to the sequential ablation probe configuration list.