This is an brief introduction to the emerging field of irreversible electroporation in medicine. Certain electrical fields when applied across a cell can have as a sole effect the permeabilization of the cell membrane, presumable through the formation of nanoscale defects in the cell membrane. Sometimes this process leads to cell death, primarily when the electrical fields cause permanent permeabilization of the membrane and the consequent loss of cell homeostasis, in a process known as irreversible electroporation. This is an unusual mode of cell death that is not fully understood yet. While the phenomenon of irreversible electroporation may have been known for centuries it has become only recently rigorously considered in medicine for various applications of tissue ablation. A brief historical perspective of irreversible electroporation is presentedfollowed by general reviews on the theory and experiment fundamentals and by reports on the most recent theoretical, experimental and clinical studies.

Zusammenfassung
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.

Inhalt
Historical Review of Irreversible Electroporation in Medicine.- Tissue Electroporation as a Bioelectric Phenomenon: Basic Concepts.- Experimental Studies on Irreversible Electroporation of Cells.- Mechanism of Irreversible Electroporation in Cells: Insight from the Models.- Thermal Aspects of Irreversible Electroporation.- Experimental Studies on Non-thermal Irreversible Electroporation in Tissue.- Finite Element Modeling of in Vivo Electroporation.- Optimization and Numerical Modeling in Irreversible Electroporation Treatment Planning.- The Place of the Electroporation-Based Antitumor Therapies in the Electrical Armamentarium against Cancer.- Irreversible Electroporation: First Patient Experience Focal Therapy of Prostate Cancer.- Human Experience with Irreversible Electroporation.- Irreversible Electroporation Systems for Clinical Use.- The Use of Irreversible Electroporation in Food Preservation.