Cryotherapy or colloquially known as ‘cold therapy’ is a procedure that uses liquid nitrogen to deliver freezing cold temperature locally to destroy and remove abnormal skin lesion.
The cryotherapy treated area will appear like a small burn. You may experience mild redness, stinging or discomfort. The redness will gradually subside over a week. If the treated area is slightly weepy, your doctor may cover the area with a dressing, and advised you to apply antibiotic ointment or Vaseline over the area to encourage healing. Overtime, the abnormal skin lesion may reduce in size or potentially fall off itself.
Frequency of cryotherapy sessions depends on the size of the lesion, individual response to cryotherapy treatment. Your doctor usually will follow you up 2 to 4 weeks after your cryotherapy session to review the effect on the skin lesion. If required, your doctor may advise you for further cryotherapy session.
No preparation required. No fasting required. Your doctor will run through with you the cryotherapy procedure, what to expect and what are the side effects before the cryotherapy session
The complication from cryotherapy therapy is low. Commonly, patients can experience pain, redness, swelling, blistering, crust formation, and pigmentatory changes (skin tone lighter/darker) after procedure. There can be a small risk of bacterial infection if the treated skin area is slightly weepy.
You can return to your normal daily routine immediately after cryotherapy. If the treatment skin area is slightly red and weepy, ensure the area is clean and dry, avoid long hours of bath soaking, swimming, or excessive sweating to reduce infection risk.
You are encouraged to inform your doctor if you have any underlying medical conditions.
In some fortunate case, you can see results of the abnormal skin lesion falling off after 5 to 7 days of receiving cryotherapy. Sometimes you may require repeated sessions of cryotherapy to completely remove the abnormal skin lesion. Your doctor will guide you during the cryotherapy treatment follow up on whether further sessions are required.
The same medication may not cause any reaction to a person, yet may cause unforeseen allergic reactions to another person.
Allergy Immunotherapy modifies a person’s body immune response towards allergens, hence easing allergy symptoms.
This allergy is common among healthcare workers, people who have undergone multiple surgeries
Common insect stings in Singapore come from yellow jackets, hornets, wasps, and honey bees.
Checking the skin or nail lesion with wood lamp involves shining a hand-held wood lamp device on the area of concern by your physician.
Electrocautery is a bedside procedure where your doctor will use an ‘electric pen’ to deliver high frequency electric current onto the skin to generate heat in order to stop bleeding or remove abnormal skin cells
A steroid injection is simple bedside procedure where your doctor will inject minute amount of steroid onto the skin.
Skin cancer screening is usually performed by your physician using a dermatoscope. Dermatoscope is a medical magnifying glass that allows your physician to visualize the size and shape of the mole that you are concerned of.
Fungal scrape and bacterial culture tests allow physician to confirm or debunk fungal/bacterial diagnosis of skin condition
Skin tags are benign. They are also known as acrochordons medically. They are small, soft overgrowth of the skin commonly located among the face, eyelids neck, armpit, groin, breasts and buttock folds.
An excision biopsy is a bedside procedure where your doctor uses a surgical blade to remove the entire skin lesion under the use of local anaesthesia.
A shave biopsy a bedside procedure where your doctor uses a surgical superficial shaving blade to remove the skin lesion under the use of local anaesthesia.
A skin biopsy, or punch biopsy, is a bedside surgical procedure where your physician will use a small knife ‘puncher’ to obtain a small skin sample under local anaesthesia.
Herpes zoster, commonly referred to as shingles, is a painful blistering rash caused by the varicella-zoster virus— the same virus that causes chickenpox.
Seborrheic Dermatitis is a common chronic inflammatory condition of the skin. It is categorized as a type of chronic eczema, affecting the body area that has more sebaceous glands. characterized by red, greasy scaly patches.
Living in a hot humid climate of Singapore, fungal infection of the skin is common. The fungus thrives and favors body areas that are moist and warm such as the armpit, breast folds, groin, buttocks, feet, toes or even nails.
Eczema is a common inflammation condition of the skin. Although eczema can occur any time in one’s life, it typically starts presenting when one is a child.
Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin condition. It is a common skin disease that can affect 1 in 50 people.
Nearly 20% of people will get hives at some point in their lifetime. While they may not be life-threatening, hives can potentially cause both physical and emotional issues, particularly if they occur frequently.
Your body’s natural reaction to pokes, cuts, and trauma to your skin is to heal. On most occasions, skin injuries heal up without any problems.
