Medical system and method of use
Methods, systems and devices for applying energy to tissue, and more particularly relates to a system for ablating or modifying structures in a body with systems and methods that generate a flow of vapor at a controlled flow rate for applying energy to the body structure.
1. A method for a controlled treatment of a body structure, the method comprising:
positioning a working end of a vapor delivery system at a targeted site in a body;
providing a flow of liquid media at a selected fluid flow rate in the system and converting the liquid media to vapor media in the vapor delivery system where a vapor flow rate corresponds to the selected fluid flow rate and corresponds to a controlled amount of energy using a flow controller and selecting the fluid flow rate on a controller interface wherein the flow controller is programmable to maintain the fluid flow rate at first parameters over a first time interval and maintain the fluid flow rate at second parameters over a second time interval; and
delivering the vapor media to the targeted site for a selected time interval thereby providing the controlled amount of energy to the targeted site.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the selected fluid flow rate is between 0.01 ml/min to 50 ml/min.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the corresponding vapor flow rate is between 1 ml/min to 1500 ml/min.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the energy applied for converting the liquid media to vapor media is between 1 W and 3000 W.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the selected time interval is between 1 sec and 5 minutes.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein converting includes actuating an RF source configured to inductively heat a structure having a flow channel that carries the flow of liquid media.
7. The method of claim 6 wherein the flow channel within the structure has a diameter ranging from 0.01″ to 0.10″.
8. The method of claim 6 wherein the flow channel within the structure has a length ranging from 10 cm and 500 cm.
9. The method of claim 1 wherein the selected fluid flow rate is maintained at a constant rate over the selected time interval.
10. The method of claim 1 further comprising selecting an energy application rate on a controller interface.
11. The method of claim 1 further comprising selecting the time interval on a controller interface.
12. The method of claim 1 further comprising selecting the total calories applied to tissue on a controller interface.
13. The method of claim 1 wherein the flow controller is programmable to maintain the fluid flow rate at a constant over the selected time interval.
14. The method of claim 1 wherein the flow controller is programmable to modulate the fluid flow rate over at least one selected time interval.
15. The method of claim 1 , where the controlled amount of energy to the targeted site corresponds to an energy application of between 1 cal/sec to 500 cal/sec.
16. A method for a controlled treatment of a body structure, the method comprising:
positioning a working end of a vapor delivery system at a targeted site in a body;
providing a flow of liquid media at a selected fluid flow rate in the system and converting the liquid media to vapor media where a vapor flow rate corresponds to the selected fluid flow rate and corresponds to a controlled amount of energy using a flow controller and selecting a total calories applied to tissue on a controller interface; and
delivering the vapor media to the targeted site for a selected time interval thereby providing the controlled amount of energy to the targeted site.