Cryoanalgesia (the use of cold to provide anesthesia or analgesia) is the oldest anesthetic and analgesic still in current clinical use. Its intraoperative use in providing postoperative analgesia for acute thoracic pain problems via an open thoracotomy is well described. The long-term efficacy of cryoanalgesia for the management of chronic thoracic pain due to intercostal neuralgia is less cle...

The demand for postoperative analgesia was compared between 29 patients treated with cryoanalgesia to the relevant intercostal nerves during thoracotomy and a control group who did not have cryoanalgesia. The cryoanalgesia group required significantly less (p < 0.005) postoperative analgesia than did the control group.

From The Pain Center, Orange Park, Florida . Address Correspondence: Andrea M. Trescot, MD, The Pain Center, 1564 Kingsley Ave, Orange Park, FL 32073. E-mail: [email protected] Funding: There was no external funding in preparation of this manuscript. Cryoneuroablation, also known as cryoanalgesia or cryoneurolysis, is a specialized technique for providing long-term pain relief in interventional pai...

Objective: The choice of analgesia in the management of post-thoracotomy pain remains controversial. Although several alternative forms of post-thoracotomy analgesia exist, all have their disadvantages. Cryoanalgesia, localized freezing of intercostal nerves, has been reported to have variable effectiveness and an incidence of long-term cutaneous sensory changes. We carried out an animal study ...

BACKGROUND Cryoanalgesia, also known as cryoneuroablation or cryoneurolysis, is a specialized technique for providing long-term pain relief. METHODS There are presented retrospective data on pain relief and changes in function after cryoanalgesia techniques: we describe the effect of this procedure on articular facet syndromes, sacroiliac pain and knee pain. We reviewed records of 18 patients...

Introduction Neuropathic pain from peripheral nerve disease or injury consequent to trauma, surgery, infection, cancer or other causes is often referred to as neuralgia. It is common and often difficult to treat. For instance, the incidences of chronic post-surgical pain (CPSP) are reported to range between 25 to 50% in patients underwent thoracic surgeries[1,2] , mastectomies[3,4] or abdominal...