The process of freezing and the mechanism of damage during hepatic cryosurgery

Abstract

Experiments were performed to correlate the structures of liver tissue frozen during cryosurgery, liver frozen at various constant cooling rates, and unfrozen, dried normal liver. The results show that during freezing of tissue ice forms and propagates along the vascular system, expanding during freezing at low cooling rates. This expansion occurs over most of the region frozen during cryosurgery and may be one of the mechanisms of damage to tissue during cryosurgery.