Mechanism of Cryosurgery: A review

Abstract

The cryosurgery is a useful surgical technique in which the undesirable tissue such as tumors are easily removed by extreme cooling. Cryosurgery’s primitive benefit is that as a percutaneous method, it minimizes the invasiveness and cost associated with conventional surgery. Various types of Cryogens which are used in cryosurgery include nitrogen oxide, liquid nitrogen and liquid argon having boiling temperature of -89.5°C, -196°C, and -187°C respectively. Generally liquid nitrogen (LN₂) is used as cryogen because of minimum boiling temperature. Liquid nitrogen is available and easily applied. The effect of mass flow rate on LN₂ cryoprobe is described and the study of heat transfer enhancement configuration on cryoprobe is mentioned. To perform a cryosurgery a complete understanding of mechanism of tissue injury is required. A thermal parameters are to be controlled for efficient cryosurgery. Rapid freezing, hold time, slow thawing and repetitive freeze/thaw cycle is a standard procedure for cryosurgical treatment. Cryosurgical treatment is efficient and effective in various skin disease and cancer. It provides good cosmetic result and high cure rates with low operational cost. A review on cryosurgical treatment using cryoprobe method is described. A review on development of efficient cryoprobe was carried out to understand the effect of thermal parameters for performing cryosurgical treatment.