Devices and Electrode Technology
In electroporation-based therapy the drug is not the only determinant of outcome: the electric field distribution in the tissue matters just as much. That distribution is set jointly by electrode geometry, inter-electrode distance, applied voltage and the tissue’s own conductivity. The extended electroporation corpus holds 34 technical/device studies and 149 modelling studies.
Clinical Reference. This section is independent of the portal's publication counting: the values here are not computed from the corpus but taken from the named procedure, guidance and manufacturer documents, each shown with its source. When the source document is revised, this page changes with it. If you spot an error on this page, write to info@dgmed.com.tr. The portal publishes no clinical review record (reviewer and date) for this page; the content is transcribed from the source documents named above, and what binds are the current versions of those documents.
Examples of Electroporation Systems Represented in the Literature Corpus
| System | Manufacturer | Regime and context in the literature | Distinguishing feature as described in the literature | Mentions in corpus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cliniporator | IGEA (Italy) | Electrochemotherapy (ECT); cutaneous and subcutaneous tumour nodules | The system on which the ESOPE procedures were defined; works with type I–III electrodes. The 2006 procedure states that the device stores the electrical parameters used for treatment, including traces of the voltage applied and the current delivered during treatment. | 14 records (VITAE included) , |
| Cliniporator VITAE | IGEA (Italy) | Electrochemotherapy (ECT); deep-seated tumours | The manufacturer’s technical sheet describes variable-geometry (VGD) needle electrodes with selectable active tip and total length, in 12–24 cm lengths, and states that the device measures and displays voltage and current waveforms during the procedure. Placing such electrodes in the liver according to a treatment plan is described separately. | 3 records , |
| NanoKnife | AngioDynamics (USA) | Irreversible electroporation (IRE); non-thermal ablation | In one published application, needle electrodes were placed into the lesion under ultrasound guidance, the voltage was set to 2,400–2,700 V, and the pulses were delivered in the absolute refractory period using electrocardiographic synchronisation. | 25 records |
Inclusion rule. A platform appears in this table only where two conditions hold together: (1) the platform name occurs in at least 10 publications of the extended electroporation corpus, and (2) the archive holds a manufacturer technical document for it. Versions of the same platform (Cliniporator and Cliniporator VITAE) are shown as separate rows; the threshold applies to the platform name. The “mentions in corpus” column counts records whose title, abstract or first-page text carries that name. The count is not an indicator of market share, effectiveness, equivalence or ranking. Nor is the table a complete market survey: systems that do not meet both conditions are not listed. Aliya meets one of them: it has a manufacturer manual in the archive, but its 4 mentions fall below the threshold. ePORE meets neither: it appears in 2 records of the corpus and has no manufacturer document in the archive. Approval and licensing status in your country is not assessed on this page; consult the manufacturer’s current instructions for use and the record of your competent authority.
Why Is Field Distribution Critical?
Electroporation is threshold-based: for a cell’s membrane to become permeable, the field strength at its own location must exceed the threshold. That threshold is not a single sharp line and varies with tissue conductivity, cell type, pulse amplitude and duration; where the field is insufficient, the electroporation-enhanced uptake is not expected to reach its target level and that volume counts as incompletely covered.
The practical goal is therefore to cover the whole tumour and its margin with a supra-threshold field. In thick or irregular lesions this is achieved by overlapping electrode applications.
Tissue conductivity is not homogeneous: fat, muscle, tumour and bone differ, and the field bends at those boundaries. For deep-seated tumours this brings patient-specific treatment planning into play: the field distribution is computed by finite-element methods on a tissue model derived from imaging, and electrode positions follow from it. ,
Most of the modelling studies in the corpus address exactly this problem, the calculation that runs from electrode placement to field distribution.
Monitoring Features Reported for Selected Systems
Each row shows for which system and in which publication the feature is reported
| Feature | System it is reported for | What the publication reports | How the measurement is interpreted in the literature |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current measurement | Cliniporator , Cliniporator VITAE , NanoKnife | The 2006 ESOPE procedure states that the Cliniporator delivering the pulses stores the electrical parameters used for treatment, together with traces of the voltage applied and the current delivered. The manufacturer’s technical sheet states that the Cliniporator VITAE measures and displays voltage and current waveforms during the procedure. On the IRE side, a 2014 study reports that currents measured with an external current probe setup deviated on average by 0.371% from the final outputs of the NanoKnife generator, and writes that real-time current monitoring was at that time not available in clinical IRE generators. | The same study writes that the current should be kept in a range that is sufficient for a clinically relevant ablation without exceeding safe limits. In an ECT series of 131 patients with head and neck tumours the current flowing through the tissue during treatment was recorded; the median current was reported as 6.6 A in patients with a partial response and 3.3 A in those without one. |
| Voltage verification | Cliniporator , Cliniporator VITAE , NanoKnife | The ESOPE study report derives the amplitude of the pulses delivered with the Cliniporator from an amplitude-to-distance ratio of 1,000–1,300 V/cm, depending on electrode type. The manufacturer’s technical sheet states that the Cliniporator VITAE measures and displays the voltage waveform during the procedure. In one published case using NanoKnife electrodes the electrodes were placed 1.4 cm apart and the voltage was set to 2,400–2,700 V. | The amplitude-to-distance ratio (V/cm) is obtained by dividing the applied voltage by the inter-electrode distance; within the ESOPE framework the voltage is chosen from that ratio and the electrode type. , In one modelling study the voltage and current limits of the pulse generator acted as constraints while pulse amplitude and electrode distance were optimised, and prevented the whole tumour volume from being exposed to a supra-threshold field. |
| Impedance monitoring | This portal’s search of the corpus found no record tying the measurement to a named clinical system; the measurement is reported in research setups and experimental models | In ex vivo soft-tissue sarcoma samples the resistance was computed from the voltage and current recorded by the equipment in a fixed measurement setup. A 2021 technical study developed a rapid impedance spectroscopy method for monitoring impedance in real time during electroporation-based therapies and validated it in potato tissue; it finds the spectrum acquisition time of commercial instruments too long for this purpose. On the IRE side, a 2015 study describes the absence of methods for real-time treatment evaluation as a clinical limitation and proposes an impedance-sensing probe. | In a cell suspension, increased membrane permeability is accompanied by increased conductivity; measuring conductivity during the pulses can show that the permeabilisation threshold has been passed, but does not give the level of permeabilisation directly. In measurements in mouse liver, physiological effects such as the vascular lock are reported as possibly dominating the impedance change. |
| ECG synchronisation | Cliniporator , NanoKnife | A 2017 chapter on the development of the Cliniporator writes that operating during open surgery required the device to be able to stay synchronised with the absolute refractory period of the heart. In one case using NanoKnife electrodes the pulses were delivered in the absolute refractory period with electrocardiographic synchronisation. A separate research group evaluated the performance of its own synchronisation algorithm on electrocardiogram recordings from patients; that report is for the group’s own algorithm, not for a feature of a commercial system. | For tissues close to the heart, synchronising the pulses with the electrocardiogram is described as the method by which safety is ensured ; for IRE near the heart, ventricular arrhythmias are reported to be preventable with this synchronisation . In one case report the synchronisation device failed to operate properly and pulses were delivered in the relative rather than the absolute refractory period; the authors write that this risk stays small but real even when a synchronisation device is used. |
Scope of this section. The rows relay only what published literature and the manufacturer document in the archive state; the portal makes no claim of its own about any system’s intended purpose, safety or performance, and presents no system as equivalent or superior to another. A feature reported in one publication does not mean that it is present in every version of the same platform or that it forms part of an approved intended purpose; its absence from a publication does not mean the feature is absent either. For a system’s current intended purpose, conditions of use and approval status, the binding document is the manufacturer’s controlled documentation (instructions for use and labelling). This portal does not speak on a manufacturer’s behalf.