">CRYOSURGERY
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CryoSurgery involves the use of freezing techniques for the treatment
of arrhythmias during open-heart surgery. Your physician may recommend
that CryoSurgery be used during the course of open-heart surgery as a
secondary procedure to treat any arrhythmia that was present or that
may appear during the primary open-heart procedure.
Cryosurgery may also be recommended for treating arrhythmias that
cannot be treated with catheter CryoAblation alone. If your doctor
advises using cryosurgery during open-heart surgery, be sure to ask him
or her about the procedure and why it is recommended.
If you are suffering from a specific type of heart failure, your physician may decide to implant a device to regulate the heart's rhythm. Such devices may include a pacemaker, defibrillator, hemomonitor, or resynchronization device. The doctor may intend to use cryosurgery techniques to guide and control the heart's electrical impulses in conjunction with one of these devices.
When you turn on the SurgiFrost™ system, the preset temperature display
shows a horizontal bar. This indicates that the system is preset for
full power. The temperature achieved in cryosurgery will vary depending on the heat load of the tissue being frozen. Under minimal heat load, as would be the case when the probe is turned on in air, the temperature can reach -160°C in less than 20 seconds. Under a high heat load, as would be the case on the epicardial surface of a beating heart, the temperature would only reach approximately -100°C in 60 seconds. Irrespective of the temperature reached by the probe, the default full power setting should be used in most circumstances to ensure the maximum lesion-making capability.
Temperature control below full power should be used only when the
surgeon is concerned about delicate structures around the probe.
Why can't I reuse the probe? The SurgiFrost™ system has been designed for single use only. This design has been optimized to give the surgeon a probe that is malleable and easy to use while at the same time capable of working with high-pressure gases. The probe can only be certified durable for a single cryosurgery surgical procedure.
Why should I use SurgiFrost™?
CryoCath's CryoSurgery probe and console provide safety,
effectiveness, and ease of use in one integrated system. It can be set
up and used quickly and easily, provides adjustable time and
temperature settings, and allows for short ablation times. The
SurgiFrost™ probe produces transmural lesions in an open heart or on a
closed beating heart. It is ideally suited for cardiac arrhythmia
cryosurgery in conjunction with another procedure.
Heat-based methods generate heat directly on target tissue; this may
have a burning or charring effect on the tissue depending on the energy
source and the power level. CryoSurgery does not involve an analogous
"injection" of cold energy; rather, it is a process whereby heat is
removed from target tissue. It is for this reason that cryo does not
denature the protein structure of biological tissue and will only kill
cells without damaging the underlying structure.
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