Veterinarians are finding that cryosurgery is improving even the most innocuous tasks for both doctors and their feathered, four-footed or other non-human patients.
Cryosurgery enables the removal of a variety of skin lesions by freezing. Current cryosurgery techniques utilize liquid nitrogen or nitrous oxide circulated through a handheld device to deliver cold temperatures to the affected area.
Methods of application are one of the important areas where innovation has made cryosurgery a better option for animals. Tools that are handheld and more portable now give veterinarians the option to perform surgery at the office or in the field. Direct application methods have also made the practice safer and more efficient.
Past cryosurgery options relied on the indirect application of dangerous chemicals to the skin to achieve the same effect that today's fully contained units achieve. Instead of the chemicals coming in direct contact with the animal, they are instead passed through a metal tip that is applied to the affected area. These new methods of cryosurgery mean no more direct handling of dangerous, possibly flammable chemicals, while achieving lower, more effective temperatures. There's also less waste, meaning present-day solutions are more cost-effective than they have been in the past.
Large Number of Applications
Veterinarians who have begun performing cryosurgery have used it for a variety of procedures in the animals they see, such as:
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Tongue tumors
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Mast cell tumors found on the paw or pad
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Peri-anal carcinomas and anal gland tumors
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Eyelid tumors
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Tail tumors
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Tumors of the jaw
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Genital lesions
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Skin tags
Overall, cryosurgery offers a high success rate on these procedures. Cryosurgery can also mean addressing an issue completely in just a single appointment.
Advantages of Cryosurgery
More and more veterinarians are turning to cryosurgery because they find that pet owners prefer the treatment options it presents for their pets. When traditional methods of surgery are either not possible or represent higher costs, cryosurgery is an effective solution.
One great advantage is that by freezing instead of simply cutting, the surgery becomes largely bloodless. That means less trauma to the animal, and a quicker healing time without stitches. Your animal also does not need to be anesthetized, making the procedure at once both safer for the animal and less expensive for the owner.
An additional advantage is that, when using a cryosurgery device that can achieve a temperature of -89 degrees Celsius, a single treatment is often all that is needed. This is extremely important for animal patients since the veterinarian may not get a second chance to treat the skin lesion.
If your veterinary practice has been considering cryosurgery as an option to your patients, the Freezpoint™ from Bovie Medical deserves serious consideration. It is a small, handheld, non-flammable device that uses 8 or 16 gram cartridges of N2O and can reach as low as -89 degrees Celsius.
Contact us for more information about Freezpoint™ or any other member of our Bovie® family of surgical devices.
Image courtesy of: skeeze/ Pixabay.com
