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Cryosurgery

»	What is cryosurgery?
»	How does cryosurgery cause injury?
»	Which agents are used for cryosurgery?
»	Do you need a lot of expensive equipment to use cryosurgery?
»	What types of skin conditions can be treated with cryosurgery?
»	How is cryosurgery performed?
»	How are benign skin lesions treated?
»	How do you treat malignant lesions?
»	Is cryosurgery a preferred method for the treatment of cutaneous malignancy?
»	What are the cure rates of cryosurgery for malignant lesions?
»	Are there contraindications to cryosurgery?
»	For which patients is cryosurgery better than other methods?
»	What are the complications of cryosurgery?

What is cryosurgery?

Cryosurgery is the controlled application of cold to cause tissue damage. It can be used to treat both benign and malignant skin conditions. With cryosurgery, the degree of tissue damage is controlled in order to destroy the target lesion with minimal damage to normal surrounding tissue.

Gage AA: History of cryosurgery, Semin Surg Oncol 14:99–109, 1998.

Korpan N: Atlas of cryosurgery, Wien, Springer, 2001.