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Incidental detection of solid renal masses during abdominal imaging is increasing in older patients (JW Nov 30 2006). Although these masses often are malignant histologically, many are indolent clinically. A therapeutic option for patients who are poor surgical candidates is cryoablation, in which cryoprobes are inserted percutaneously into the mass, creating an “ice ball” that destroys the tumor.
In this retrospective series from Mayo Clinic, 110 patients (mean age, 72) with renal masses (mean tumor size, 3.3 cm; range, 1.5–7.3 cm) were treated under general anesthesia with percutaneous cryoablation. For most patients, cryoablation was recommended instead of surgery because of substantial medical comorbidities or prior contralateral nephrec…