Disclosures: Miguel Angel Valdez Noriega, MD: Nothing to disclose

Objective: To evaluate the analgesic and functional effect of whole body cryotherapy in patients with chronic low back pain.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of Hospital Civil de Guadalajara Fray Antonio Alcalde, Guadalajara, Mexico.

Participants: A total of 20 patients (35% male and 65% female), aged 29 to 58 years with a previous diagnosis of chronic low back pain. No use of NSAIDs during the study.

Interventions: They underwent 20 sessions of whole body cryotherapy, 5 times a week for 4 weeks, with exposure time of 3 minutes, using as an active principle dry nitrogen at initial temperatures of -110 ° C reaching -180 ° C. Plus they are trained to perform an exercise program at home, twice a day at least 5 times a week.

Main Outcome Measures: World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS 2.0), Visual Analogue Scale (EVA), Fingertip-to-Floor Test, was applied basally, at 20 sessions and 1 month after the end of treatment. Wilcoxon rank-sum test and Student-T Test were used to analyze the results obtained.

Results: Statistically significant results were obtained comparing baseline vs end of treatment and baseline vs 1 month after the end of treatment EVA (P <.01), (P <.01), WHODAS 2.0 (P <.01), (P <.01), Fingertip-to-Floor Test (P <.05), (P <.01).

Conclusions: Whole body cryotherapy proved to be effective for pain reduction, functional improvement, generating a reduction in the perception of disability in patients with chronic low back pain.

Level of Evidence: Level III

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PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/efficacy-of-whole-body-cryotherapy-in-chronic-low-back-pain/