Cryotherapy is a treatment where your Doctor or nurse applies extreme cold to freeze and destroy abnormal tissue. To create this severe cold we use liquid nitrogen 

Aftercare

Aftercare is simple and in many cases, no specific aftercare treatment is necessary. Many people leave the treated spots uncovered and allow them to heal naturally over the next 3 weeks or so.

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Pain relief

During treatment, the pain of cryotherapy is an extremely cold, sharp, stinging sensation. This settles almost immediately to a milder pain which usually lasts a few minutes, but may persist for some hours. The treated area sometimes feels mildly irritated or itchy after this.

Headache can occur following cryotherapy to the scalp or forehead. This is a tension headache, caused by tightening of the scalp muscles in response to the treatment. The headache usually responds well to simple pain killers, warmth or massage and rarely lasts more than a few hours.

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Dressings

If there are no sores, blisters or scabs in the treated area, no dressing is required.

If your treated area develops a sore or a blister, cover it with micropore tape or similar adhesive dressing for 3-7 days. If you don't like the appearance of the treated area while it heals, you can cover it with a further dressing but this is optional.

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Managing blisters

Blisters are a common result of cryotherapy treatment and may appear in the first few hours. This is a sign of effective treatment: the skin cancer or solar keratosis has separated from the healthy skin and will be replaced by normal tissue as the blister heals. Blisters are usually painless, but they may weep a small amount of clear fluid.

In some cases, bleeding may occur into a blister. This is unsightly but not dangerous and will usually settle without treatment.

Don't puncture blisters. Punctured blisters are more painful and take longer to heal. Do not use any creams, powders or ointments on the blister. Avoid antiseptics such as Betadine, Savlon or Dettol. These antiseptics can help kill bacteria if the wound is infected, but they are toxic to new developing skin cells and can delay wound healing.

Side effects and complications

Blistering, sores, infection, scarring, hypopigmentation (treated area becomes pale or white), hyperpigmentation (treated area becomes darker), pain, headache, treatment failure

If you are concerned or have any further questions please call the clinic.