Abstract

Background. Whole-body cryotherapy is a physical method that is increasingly being employed in rehabilitation. The procedure consists in stimulating the body with temperatures below -100ºC. The most common applications of cryotherapy is in the treatment of diseases or injuries of the locomotor system. Material and methods. The study comprised 222 patients: 114 females (51.3%) and 108 males (48.6%) selected to the study group, diagnosed with discopathy (107 persons; 48.1%), lumbalgia at L5-S1 (57 persons; 25.6%), and spinal column degeneration (58 persons; 26.1%). The patients underwent series of 10 whole-body cryotherapy procedures, the sessions, each lasting 1-3 minutes, were conducted every day for 10 days. Changes in the body surface temperature (before therapy and after its completion) were recorded and analyzed, in addition pulse, and arterial blood pressure after 1, 5 and 10 procedures, with respect to diagnosed disease and the patient’s gender were also analyzed. Results. Whole-body cryotherapy procedures caused significant reduction in body temperature (p<0.01). Evaluation of pulse and arterial blood pressure parameters showed that the group of patients with discopathy as well as spinal pain syndrome registered the highest changes in pulse rate value (p<0.01). Higher pulse rate fluctuations were observed in women. Results on arterial blood pressure values revealed a statistically significant increase in systolic blood pressure parameters only (p<0.01).Conclusion. Whole-body cryotherapy lead to significant drop in body surface temperature and increased pulse rate and systolic blood pressure.

Key words:

whole-body cryotherapy, treatment, Physical Medicine, motor organs disease