Cryocautery of prostate

Cryocautery is a further development of cryosurgery of the prostate in patients at high risk. This new operative method combines both freezing and subsequent heating of the prostate. Cryocautery is performed without general or medullary anesthesia. Since 1975, 136 patients have been treated with this method; 88 per cent have had a good postoperative result. A follow-up examination after eighteen months shows 79 per cent of the patients with good results. The advantages of cryocautery are (1) more prostatic tissue becomes necrotic; (2) regeneration processes are suppressed for a long time; (3) no postoperative hemorrhage in the sloughing period; (4) sloughing of necrotic tissue begins after forty-eight hours; and (5) postoperative hospital stay can be reduced to one to two days.