Cryoablation

Learn more ablation for cancer treatment. Other health tip infographics: mayohealthhighlights.startribune.com 

CHICAGO — For J. William Charboneau, M.D., life is a journey of unknown possibilities, filled with family. And Tuesday, Nov. 28, with family [...]

What if you could undergo a cancer treatment that would allow you to walk out of the hospital the next day with just three small [...]

Retired elementary school teacher Jessie Brown takes time to enjoy the pleasures of daily life. She goes for long walks with her dogs, King Solomon and Baby Ruth. She spends time with her children and grandchildren who live near the farm where she and her husband, Tom, make their home in rural Marshall, Arkansas. She plans the holiday meals she’ll be making for her family, who are particularly looking forward to her much-loved turkey dressing at Thanksgiving. This year, these ordinary enjoyments are especially meaningful, because for the last two years, Jessie couldn’t do any of them. Confined to bed much of that time with a constellation of mysterious symptoms that left her immobile and in pain, Jessie wasn’t sure she would ever be able to reclaim the busy, happy life she loved. “My face was swollen; my legs were swollen. I kept falling down. My hair and nails were breaking off,” she says. “I had a lot of bad symptoms. I knew something was wrong. I went to doctor after doctor, but they all had a different opinion.” After almost a year and a half, Jessie was diagnosed with Cushing syndrome.

ROCHESTER, Minn. – Needle-guided tumor destruction procedures offer near equivalent lengths of local cancer control compared to surgery for patients with small kidney cancer tumors, according to the results of a large study published in the journal European Urology. “If validated, these data suggest that an update to clinical guidelines would be warranted,” says the study’s lead author, R. Houston Thompson, M.D., a Mayo Clinic urologist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5C2wnXllMY Dr. Thompson says radical nephrectomy – surgical removal of the entire kidney – has historically been the standard of care for management of kidney cancer; however, partial nephrectomy – surgical removal of tumors from a kidney while sparing healthy tissue –has become increasingly more common because of its nephron-sparing benefits and similar cancer control. The nephron is the part of the kidney that filters out toxins from the blood. “We undertook this study because direct comparisons of outcomes among patients with kidney cancer who have received partial nephrectomy (PN), radiofrequency ablation (RFA) – tumor destruction using intense heat and cryoablation – tumor destruction using extreme cold – are lacking, especially from institutions that routinely perform all three of these procedures,” Dr. Thompson says. Journalists: Sound bites with Dr. Thompson are available in the downloads. MEDIA CONTACT: Joe Dangor, Mayo Clinic Public Affairs, 507-284-5005, newsbureau@mayo.edu.

In this Mayo Clinic Radio Health Minute, Dr. Fred Kusumoto explains a procedure designed to help with atrial fibrillation [...]

Rosalee Johns says she has her life back thanks to a freezing therapy called cryoablation that restored her heartbeat to normal. In 2008, Johns, then age 67, was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, a condition in which the atria — the upper chambers of the heart — receive irregular electrical impulses that cause erratic heartbeats. Johns’ heart beat rapidly. She was light-headed and short of breath. The episodes occurred every three or four weeks, lasting 12 to 15 hours. Despite treatment with medication, the episodes increased to almost daily.

Cryoablation Recently Approved as Atrial Fibrillation Treatment January 13, 2012 Dear Mayo Clinic: I was just diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and am on [...]