Contraindications to Whole-Body Cryostimulation (WBC). A position paper from the WBC Working Group of the International Institute of Refrigeration and the multidisciplinary expert panel.
Paolo Capodaglio, Angelo Alito, Benoit Michel Duguè and 8 others
PMID 40303546WHAT IT FOUND
Experts agreed on an updated whole-body cryostimulation contraindication list, covering uncontrolled blood pressure, heart disease, cold intolerance, pregnancy, cancer and recent stroke.
Use it for medical screening, not as proof the treatment works.
Key findings
01An expert Delphi panel updated the contraindication list for whole-body cryostimulation, with 28 of 48 invited experts completing both rounds.
02The final list separates temporary contraindications, such as acute illness, fever, pregnancy, severe anaemia and cold intolerance, from permanent contraindications, including uncontrolled hypertension, recent stroke and untreated or progressive invasive cancer.
03Three proposed contraindications, Raynaud, hyperhidrosis and anxiety, were discarded after low consensus in the first Delphi round.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The Delphi panel was selected purposively and by snowball sampling, and only experts who agreed to participate completed both rounds. The list is based on expert consensus and previous literature, not on patient outcomes or a controlled comparison of whole-body cryostimulation with another treatment. The systematic review included articles that did not specify contraindications, and some articles could not be retrieved. The search used a general string and excluded articles not available in full text, which may have missed relevant evidence. The authors state that evidence for whole-body cryostimulation in cancer and cardiology is lacking or anecdotal. The Delphi method can introduce researcher bias in item wording and group conformity in consensus. The paper does not report adverse-event rates from using the updated list.
Declared interests
The authors declared financial support for the research and/or publication. The work was supported by the Italian Ministry of Health Ricerca Corrente, and it received no specific grant from any commercial or not-for-profit funding agency.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that whole-body cryostimulation is safe or effective. It is an expert consensus list of contraindications, not a trial of the treatment.