CRYOTHERAPY FOR ACNE AND ITS SCARS

Abstract

The object of this paper is to report the results of a treatment for acne and its scars not previously presented in the American literature. Solidified carbon dioxide was first used in the treatment of acne by Pusey,¹in 1907. As early as 1909 Zeisler²wrote, "We have in carbon dioxide snow an exceedingly valuable agent with great further possibilities." In 1913 H. Béclère³employed a mixture of solid carbon dioxide and acetone in silver tubes with pressure. The year before (December 1912), Professor Bordos⁴presented before the Academy of Science of Paris a similar apparatus, which he named "cryocautery." This seems to be the origin of the term cryotherapy. In 1925 Giraudeau,⁵at the Hôpital St. Louis, commenced using cryotherapy for acne, with a mixture of solid carbon dioxide, acetone and precipitated sulfur; in 1928 he⁶reported this therapeutic method before the therapeutic