[Cryoprobes in the treatment of vascular occlusive diseases]

Application of cryosurgical methods offers good promise in the clinic of general surgery and especially in that of vascular surgery. In tests conducted on 20 dogs the authors showed that on the third-seventh day after reproduction in test animals of an acute or arterial thrombosis the thromb could be completely removed from the blood vessel, on its being fixed by freezing to a special cooled rod (cryothrombectomy). By means of a cooled rod to which the vein is being fixed by freezing cryovenectomy can be performed. The method merits further elaboration and clinical investigations.