Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to study the microwave thermal ablation and propose a surgical planning methodology for patient-specific spinal tumor.3D realistic geometries including the spinal tumor and the surrounding tissues were reconstructed from CT images.The insertion type and depth of microwave antenna were then decided.The specific absorption rate(SAR) of microwave antenna was established by measuring the temperatures in the equivalent phantom experiments.Numerical simulation was carried out to analyze the thermal ablation.Results show that edge of 54 ℃ is included in the tumor initially.The healthy tissue is beginning to be injured at 16 s.At 240 s,the volume of injured healthy tissue is about 3 520 mm³,and the volume ratio of 54 ℃ field to the whole tumor is 98.5%.It is concluded that the surgical planning methodology can provide effective prediction and theoretical basis for clinical treatment of patient-specific spinal tumor.