Laparoscopic cryotherapy of the liver, pancreas and ardenal gland

Laparoscopic hepatic cryotherapy, using intraoperative ultrasound monitoring, was introduced in the 1980s by Onik who combined the freezing process with intraoperative ultrasound for monitoring the extent of freezing. The results of open cryotherapy of the liver have been reported for more than 900 patients, the majority having received cryotherapy for liver metastases from colorectal carcinoma and primary hepatocellular carcinoma. While data on the long-term outcome of patients treated with cryotherapy are limited, some authors have documented survival comparable to that for hepatic resecrion. This is remarkable, considering these patients are often deemed unresectable and most do not even survive 1 year.