[Cryosurgery in dermatology].
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.
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D003452:Cryosurgery / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000639:trends*; D062109:Dermatologic Surgical Procedures / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000639:trends*; D003880:Dermatology / Q000639:trends; D004487:Edema / Q000209:etiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000209:etiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D016896:Treatment Outcome