Cryosurgery, cryotherapy and cryablation all are indicative of the same treatment, to freeze disease tissue away in an effort to destroy it. Cryotherapy may also be used for any cold treatment to control pain and inflammation, i.e. sport injury.
Cryosurgery is accomplished by using liquid nitrogen or argon, which super freezes tissue causing death from extreme cold. Essentially, tissue dies from ice formation, both in and outside cells, coupled with blood clotting that interrupts the tissue’s supply of oxygen and nutrients.
Cryoablation not only freezes away diseased tissue, but the healthy stuff as well. Therefore, a higher temperature is sometimes required to prevent burning surrounding tissue. Once diseased tissue is frozen away, your immune system produces phagocytes to clear out your dead tissue.
The use of cryoablation cold treatment is being used to treat numerous health conditions, many involving the skin, such as:
- warts
- moles
- lentigo
- nodules
- cervicitis
- skin tags
- cataracts
- liver spots
- birthmarks
- keloid scars
- plantar warts
- cherry angioma
- actinic keratosis
- leishmaniasis sores
- seborrheic keratosis
- molluscum contagiosum
- control excessive bleeding
- cervical intraepithelial neoplasia
- benign tumors ~ brain, spine, kidney, bone, fibroadenoma
Also, cryosurgery is an effective cold treatment for several types of cancer, like:
- cervical cancer
- retinoblastoma
- prostate cancer
- Kaposi sarcoma
- control bile duct cancer tumors
- skin cancer ~ basal cell & squamous cell carcinoma
Cryotherapy is being evaluated for treating other cancers too, including bone, breast, colon and kidney.
Cryoablation that’s used to freeze disease tissue away is limited to tumors that can be seen. Because cancer does spread and the potential for missing micrscopic cancer, chemotherapy, hormone therapy and radiation may be administered in concert with this cold treatment.
One of the major benefits of cryosurgery is it’s a minimally invasive form of cold treatment. In addition, it’s less expensive and has a shorter recovery period.
However, this health treatment of freezing disease tissue away is not brought to you without possible side effects. Depending on the targeted location of your cold treatment, here’s a couple of effects you could experience:
- bone ~ future fractures
- nerve damage ~ loss of sensation
- cervix ~ cramping, pain, bleeding
- skin ~ scarring, swelling, pigmentation loss, hair loss
Prior to your cryoablation cold treatment, ibuprofen for potential discomfort and a single dose of antibiotic to guard against infection may be given.
Laser therapy treats some of these same health conditions, but it’s a hot instead of cold treatment.
