Use of butane-isobutane refrigerant spray in the management of a mucocoele in a visually impaired child.

Mucocoeles are commonly observed lesions in children and young adults. Conventional management using a scalpel aims at enucleation, requiring psychological preparation of the parent as well as the child because of inherent fear and apprehension towards surgery. This is still more complex in children with visual impairment. The other management techniques are laser, cryotherapy and micromarsupialisation, management strategies that, being painless and tolerable, reduce the anxiety of the child and are therefore more acceptable. The basic technique of cryotherapy stresses on rapid cooling, gradual thawing and repeated freezing to ensure tissue destruction. We report a case of a 13-year-old boy with visual impairment, presenting with a mucocoele on the lower lip, which was managed using butane-isobutane refrigerant spray, which is otherwise routinely employed for pulp vitality testing. A single, 2 min freeze/thaw cycle was used. The healing was uneventful. 2016 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.