Cryosurgery

Cryosurgery is a surgical technique that employs freezing to destroy undesirable tissue. Developed first in the middle of the nineteenth century it has recently incorporated new imaging technologies and is a fast growing minimally invasive surgical technique. A historical review of the field of cryosurgery is presented, showing how technological advances have affected the development of the field. This is followed by a more in-depth survey of two important topics in cryosurgery: (a) the biochemical and biophysical mechanisms of tissue destruction during cryosurgery and (b) monitoring and imaging techniques for cryosurgery.