Cutaneous cryosurgery in the United States.

BACKGROUND

Cryosurgery is a common treatment modality for many dermatological conditions; however, the extent to which it is used and by which medical specialties is not well characterized.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the rates of cryosurgery use over time, the top dermatoses treated by cryosurgery, patient demographics and the rate at which practitioners used cryosurgery.

METHODS

We used the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) from 1993 to 2010 in order to quantify the use of cryosurgery in outpatient offices. For visits where cryosurgery was utilized, the leading diagnoses, treating physician specialties, and patient ages were tabulated.

RESULTS

Cryosurgery was most commonly used for treating actinic keratoses (48% of visits), seborrheic keratoses (25% of visits) and verrucae (21% of visits). Dermatologists performed 82% of all cryosurgeries, followed by family/internal medicine physicians (13.6%) and pediatricians (2.8%). The use of cryosurgery for these dermatoses has increased over time (p < 0.0001), especially in patients over the age of 65 years. Physicians in offices with health maintenance organization-based practices were more likely to utilize cryosurgery.

LIMITATIONS: Since NAMCS data are cross-sectional, we are unable to determine whether patients tried and failed other treatments.

CONCLUSIONS

As the baby boomer generation ages, the demand for cryosurgery will likely further increase.