Cryotherapy or cryosurgery is used very often in our private practice for the therapy of many benign and malignant skin lesions.The mechanism of destruction is the cellular necrosis and the cured lesions are then reconstructed.
The adverse reactions are often light and temporary.
The mechanism of action consists of 3 phases: a) heat carriage b) cellular damage and c) inflammation.
The mechanism of destruction is the cellular necrosis and the cured lesions are then reconstructed.
The basic technics that are used are: a) spray technic, b) cryode technic and c) cottony pen technic.
Spray technic is the most usual and is done either with open spray or with open or closed skittle.
Spray may be pulsatory in order to avoid hypertherapy and consequently adverse reactions.
Examples of diseases faced with cryotherapy are: vascular lesions such as venous lakes, hemangiomas, Kaposi sarcoma, b) pigmented lesions such as melasma, freckles, tattoos, idiopathic spotted hypomelanosis, c) cysts and tumours such as acne cysts, milia, skin tags and seborreic keratoses, d) other lesions such as cheloids, rhinophima, calluses and warts and e) malignant lesions such as basic cell carcinoma.
Topical anaesthesia is done before the treatment of malignant lesions and scraping before the cryosurgery has a better result for hyperkeratotic lesions.
The complications of the method consist of headache, pain, bubble formation, bleeding, infection, granular tissue formation, milia, atrophy,chiloids, scars, ectropion, hyper and hypopigmentation.
To sum up , cryotherapy is a safe, easy and low- cost method. The possibility for multiple sessions for a complete therapy must be emphasized when needed.
