Added: 02/07/2006 |
Cryosurgery - Extreme Cold has its Benefits in the Operating RoomCases of cryosurgery usages and description: cryosurgery's another application is treatment of tumors inside the body (internal tumors and bone tumors). For internal tumors, liquid nitrogen or argon gas circulates through a hollow inside instrument which is called a cryoprobe, which is set in contact with the tumor. The quantity of liquid nitrogen and the choice of method of delivery depend on the size, type of tissue, and depth of the lesion.
The area of the body the lesion is situated on and the required depth of freeze are to be taken into account as well. Additional factors for patients normally include the water content of the skin, the thickness of the epidermis and underlying structures, and blood flow in the place of localization.
Doctors use ultrasound to guide the cryoprobe and monitor the freezing of the cells situated nearby. Sometimes probe is used repeatedly to deliver the liquid nitrogen to different parts of the tumor. After performed cryosurgery, tissue that has been frozen thaws and is either ingested by the body (internal tumors), or it dissolves and, in case of external tumors, forms a scab.
Cryosurgery, as an application of extreme cold, is a highly effective treatment for a broad range of benign skin problems. With appropriate instruction and supervised experience, family physicians can master the technique quickly: retinoblastoma (a type of cancer predominating in childhood that affects the retina of the eye).
Surgeons found that cryosurgery is most effective when the tumor is quite small and is present only in certain parts of the retina. Skin cancers at their early-stage (squamous cell carcinomas and both basal cell). Cryosurgery is applied to treat some types of low-grade cancerous and noncancerous abnormal cell growths of the bone. It usually reduces the risk of damage as compared with more extensive surgery, also it helps lessening the need for amputation.
Cryosurgery also treats warts, moles, solar keratoses, and small insignificant skin cancers. Liver cancer, prostate cancer, cervical disorders and some other inner illnesses are treated by cryosurgery, also called cryotherapy.
The time of freezing depends upon the extent of conditions. It may vary from 5 to 10 seconds (in cases of: actinic keratosis, cherry angioma, skin tags) to 15-30 sec (in cases of keloid, dermatofibroma, cutaneous horn).
A patient undergone cryosurgery may experience minor localized pain and redness. Despite advantages of cryosurgery, it has a number of drawbacks including damage to nearby tissues and damage to nerve cells that will never regenerate. There are also side effects associated with cryosurgery: bleeding at the freeze localized site, edema, hair and hair follicle loss, hypopigmentation, infection (rare).
Hypopigmentation is the most common side effect, especially with longer freeze times, but is not that noticeable in light-skinned patients and improves within some months. Hypopigmentation is caused by the greater sensitivity of melanocytes to freezing, a situation that might be used to advantage in the treatment of dermatofibromas, which frequently have some mild overlying hyperpigmentation. But nevertheless, cryosurgery proved an effective discipline of surgery, being still in the process of improvement and development.
Cold weather is never enjoyable unless you're skiing. But in this case it's the preferred climate employed by surgeons.
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