Non-thermal irreversible electroporation is a new minimally invasive
surgical p- cedure with unique molecular selectivity attributes - in
fact it may be considered the first clinical molecular surgery
procedure. Non-thermal irreversible electro- ration is a molecular
selective mode of cell ablation that employs brief electrical fields to
produce nanoscale defects in the cell membrane, which can lead to cell
death, without an effect on any of the other tissue molecules. The
electrical fields can be produced through contact by insertion of
electrode needles around the undesirable tissue and non-invasively by
electromagnetic induction. This new - dition to the medical
armamentarium requires the active involvement and is of interest to
clinical physicians, medical researchers, mechanical engineers, che- cal
engineers, electrical engineers, instrumentation designers, medical
companies and many other fields and disciplines that were never exposed
in their training to irreversible electroporation or to a similar
concept. This edited book is designed to be a comprehensive introduction
to the field of irreversible electroporation to those that were not
exposed or trained in the field before and can also serve as a reference
manual. Irreversible electroporation is broad and interdisciplinary.
Therefore, we have made an attempt to cover every one of the various
aspects of the field from an introductory basic level to state of the
art.
