Actinic Keratoses: Pain Severity After Cryotherapy And Patient Tolerability Of Treatment

Jackson et al identify pain as the main side effect of microwave therapy for actinic keratoses (AK) and recommend a randomised controlled trial against cryotherapy to confirm clinical efficacy and patient acceptability.  Cryotherapy, is a long established treatment for focal AK  with retrospective studies demonstrating high efficacy rates , however its tolerability is poorly defined. Clinicians are aware from treatment experience of pain post-cryotherapy and the interindividual variability in duration and intensity of same.