The relationship between ablation range and ablation energy in papillary thyroid microcarcinoma: a comparison between microwave ablation and laser ablation

Objectives To study the relationship between the ablation range and applied energy of laser ablation (LA) and microwave ablation (MWA) in papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC). Methods A total of 201 PTMC patients were treated with LA ( n = 102) or MWA ( n = 99) with single-applicator fixed ablation. The ablation range was determined by contrast-enhanced ultrasound. The ratios of ablation volume, longitudinal diameter, and orthogonal diameter to ablation energy (R AV/E , R AL/E , R AO/E ) were analyzed and compared between MWA and LA. The effects of PTMC characteristics and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) on ablation efficiency were evaluated by linear regression. Results The R AV/E was 0.72 (0.65–0.84) mm 3 /J for MWA and 0.48 (0.39–0.54) mm 3 /J for LA. HT was significantly correlated with R AV/E of LA (coefficient = − 0.367, p