How are benign skin lesions treated?

The basic concept of all cryosurgery is that the depth of freezing is proportional to the width of the area frozen. When cryogen is applied, an ice ball forms in the skin for which the depth of freezing is equal to the radius of the surface freeze. Freezing 1 to 2 mm beyond the lesion with a single freeze-thaw cycle is adequate for most benign lesions. Warts can be deeper, so either a deeper freeze or multiple smaller freezes can be used. Thick seborrheic keratoses can be frozen lightly and quickly curetted. For benign lesions, you do not want to cause a scar, so it is always better to undertreat until you are experienced. When treating benign lesions, it is always important to be confident in your clinical diagnosis. If you have questions about whether or not a lesion is benign, or if a lesion does not resolve with cryosurgery, a biopsy should be performed to provide a histological diagnosis.

Jester DM: Office procedures: cryotherapy of dermal abnormalities, Prim Care 24:269–280, 1997.