Acute histopathological effects of cryotherapy on lung tissue

Abstract

Background: Cryotherapy is an actual treatment and diagnostic method in many fields of medicine. We aimed to evaluate the acute histopathological effects of cryotherapy application on lung tissue. Materials and Methods: In this study 10 male rabbits were used. After providing single lung ventilation of the rabbits, clamshell incision was performed for exploration. Four different cryotherapy applications were performed to determine the different histopathologic changes on atelectatic and ventilated lung, also the difference between one versus two-cycle applications. After all applications, firstly, air leak was checked, then specimens were taken to analyze the acute histopathologic effects. Results: After cryotherapy application, no air leak was detected on ventilated rabbit lung with a pressure of 30 cmH2O. There was no bleeding from lung tissue, but macroscopic parenchymal hematoma developed. The depth of necrosis in lung tissue was evaluated with histopathological analysis. In all samples, alveolar edema and congestion were observed but there was no statistical difference between the depth of necrosis regarding with different cryotherapy applications. Conclusions: This study indicated that different applications of cryotherapy on lung parenchyma is a safe method and do not affect the depth of necrosis in a statistically significant degree.