Method and apparatus for cryogenic treatment of skin tissue
AssigneeThe General Hospital Corporation
InventorsRichard Rox Anderson, Dieter Manstein, Henry H L Chan, Joseph Ting
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Cosmetic method and apparatus are provided that can provide cooling and/or freezing of skin tissue proximal to the skin surface to generate an appearance of lightening or reduced pigmentation in the skin. The skin can be cooled to a temperature of less than about −5 degrees Celsius for a duration of about one minute or less, using a plurality of cooled contact surfaces, each having a width between about 2 mm and about 20 mm. A cooling arrangement can be provided to provide controlled heat removal from the skin tissue being treated. A sensor can optionally be provided to detect freezing of tissue proximal to the cooled surfaces.
Claims11
A non-invasive cosmetic method for freezing a portion of a skin tissue to lighten a pigmentation appearance of the skin tissue, the method comprising:
- providing a non-invasive handheld apparatus having a handle and a plurality of protrusions;
- positioning the handheld apparatus on a portion of a skin tissue with the handle;
- and
- freezing a plurality of separated surface regions of skin tissue to produce a lightened pigmentation appearance in the skin tissue, wherein a width of at least two adjacent frozen regions of the skin tissue is greater than about 2 mm and less than about 20 mm,
- wherein the freezing step comprises contacting the surface of the skin tissue with the plurality of protrusions, wherein a width of a distal end of each protrusion is between about 2 mm and about 20 mm and wherein a temperature of the protrusions freezes a basal layer of the skin tissue to produce a lightened pigmentation appearance in the skin tissue;
- and
- wherein the plurality of protrusions are arranged in a configuration where the protrusions have a higher density at a central region of the configuration than at a peripheral region of the configuration so as to provide a feathered arrangement of the protrusions to facilitate greater skin surface contact at the central region than the peripheral region for blending treatment or avoiding excessive cooling in areas of overlap between adjacent placements.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.