A keloid represents an excessive overgrowth of skin beyond the boundaries of an injury. Earlobe
keloids usually follow ear piercing and can become large, sometimes producing remarkable
disfigurement. Surgical excision, pressure dressing, intralesional corticosteroid injection,
cryosurgery, radiation, and lasers have all been used to treat earlobe keloids. However, none has
produced uniformly satisfactory results. Combinations of more than one modality have also been
employed to yield successful outcomes. We describe cryotherapy as a single modality to treat sevenyear-old, multiple earlobe keloids. Three cryotherapy sessions with two freezing-thawing cycles of
30-40 seconds’ freezing time and two minutes’ thawing time, undertaken one month apart, resulted
in complete flatness of the keloids and no recurrence after 5 years. We also evaluate keloid-related
and operational factors that determine the success of cryotherapy as a monotherapy for earlobe
keloids.