[Cryosurgery in dermatology].

Abstract

This article provides information on the clinical development of skin reactions after cryosurgery/cryotherapy and the indications, complications and contraindications of skin cryosurgery. Successful skin cryosurgery requires rapid freezing and slow thawing, minimum tissue temperature of -25 to -60℃ and, in malignant lesions, repetition of the freeze-thaw cycle. Frozen tissue reacts with peripheral erythema immediately after thawing, followed by edema, bulla formation, exudation and mumification. Lesions usually heal with a fine atrophic scar after approximately 4 weeks. Nowadays, cryosurgery is considered the treatment of choice in hypertrophic scars and keloids, granuloma annulare, small capillary infantile hemangioma and isolated actinic keratoses. It is also a valuable alternative therapy for various other skin diseases, including common warts, solar lentigo, superficial basal cell carcinoma and Kaposi's sarcoma. Cryosurgery is a safe regimen with relatively few adverse effects and contraindications. Pain during and/or shortly after treatment, bulla formation and local edema are the major temporary adverse effects; lesional hypopigmentation and/or peripheral hyperpigmentation is the most common long-term complication.

• Authors: C C Zouboulis
• Journal: Der Hautarzt; Zeitschrift fur Dermatologie, Venerologie, und verwandte Gebiete (Hautarzt) Vol. 66 Issue 11 Pg. 834-48 (Nov 2015) ISSN: 1432-1173 [Electronic] Germany
• Vernacular Title: Kryochirurgie in der Dermatologie.
• PMID: 26497955 (Publication Type: English Abstract, Journal Article, Review)

Topics

• Cryosurgery (adverse effects, trends)
• Dermatologic Surgical Procedures (adverse effects, trends)
• Dermatology (trends)
• Edema (etiology, prevention & control)
• Evidence-Based Medicine
• Humans
• Pain, Postoperative (etiology, prevention & control)
• Skin Diseases (pathology, surgery)
• Treatment Outcome