[Cryogenic surgery of prostatic adenoma: an enrichment of our surgical possibilities?]

On the basis of our experience of 410 operations and constant contact with the most prominent exponents of this new method we feel able to draw the following conclusion; cryosurgery of prostate adenomas with good equipment is a palliative method with little danger which can be used to advantage in maximum-risk patients with indwelling catheters and large adenomas. The success rate is 70-80%, whereby this falls to 50% after 5 years. Since it is difficult to classify patients as "maximum-risk" from an internal point of view, we must reckon that the evaluation is too unfavourable in around 20%.