Efficacy of whole-body cryotherapy in the treatment of chronic low back pain: Quasi-experimental study.

ABSTRACT

STUDY DESIGN: Single arm, quasi-experimental study design. BACKGROUND: To describe the effects of whole-body cryotherapy on pain, disability, and serum inflammatory markers in patients with chronic low back pain. METHODS: A quasi-experimental trial was performed on adult patients between 18 and 65 years with chronic low back pain. After obtaining informed consent, participants underwent 20 sessions of whole-body cryotherapy (at -160 °C) during a 5-week time span. Patient reported pain and disability measures (Pain Numerical Rating Scale [PNRS], Oswestry Disability Index [OSI], and Roland Morris Questionnaire [RMQ]) were obtained at each of the twenty sessions. Blood samples were obtained to analyze serum inflammatory markers at baseline, 10th and 20th session. RESULTS: Forty-one participants were included in the study. A significant decrease was observed between the initial and final PNRS, ODI, and RMQ scores (p < 0.001). A significant reduction in the PNRS was found after 4 sessions of whole-body cryotherapy (p < 0.001). We observed decreasing values of pro-inflammatory serum marker IL-2 (p = 0.046) and a significant increase in the anti-inflammatory serum marker IL-10 (p = 0.003). No adverse events were reported during the study. CONCLUSIONS: Whole-body cryotherapy is an effective therapy for pain and disability treatment in chronic low back pain. It also produces changes in serum markers of inflammation, decreasing pro-inflammatory markers and increasing anti-inflammatory markers.