Transient global amnesia following a whole-body cryotherapy session

Abstract

Whole-body cryotherapy (WBC), which consists of a short exposure to very cold and dry air in special 'cryo-chambers', is believed to reduce inflammation and musculoskeletal pain as well as improve athletes' recovery. This is the case of a 63-year-old male, who presented with transient global amnesia (TGA) after undertaking a WBC session. TGA is a clinical syndrome characterised by a sudden onset of anterograde amnesia, sometimes coupled with a retrograde component, lasting up to 24 hours without other neurological deficits. Even though the patient completely recovered, as expected, in 24 hours, this case highlights that WBC is potentially not as risk free as thought to be initially. To conclude, before WBC can be medically recommended, well-conducted studies investigating the possible adverse events are required.

Medical Procedure-Related Transient Global Amnesia

“…However, no other procedures associated with Valsalva-associated activities were found in the literature search, such as treadmill tests or patent foramen ovale shunt tests using transcranial Doppler. TGA is also associated with miscellaneous procedures, such as photodynamic therapy [29], incremental exercise tests [30], oral provocation tests [31], whole-body cryotherapy [32], and stem cell infusion [8]. Acute pain [29] or anxiety related to the procedures [30,31], sudden exposure to coldness [32], or direct toxicity of infused drugs [8] have also been suggested as possible mechanisms of TGA.…”

Technique and Technology of Whole-Body Cryotherapy (WBC)

“…The conditional constancy of temperature fundamentally changes the degree of supercooling of the skin surface; therefore, cryosaunas ensure the effectiveness of WBC at the level of the original technology implemented in "Cryotium" but with less energy loss. The current state of WBC in Europe is a consequence of the 40-year use of the method in the absence of a reliable concept of the method for obtaining the cryotherapeutic effect and the uncertainty of the technological requirements to specialized equipment [3][4][5]. In such conditions, manufacturers of WBC installations have flooded Europe with installations that, by their therapeutic efficacy, do not differ from traditional hypothermia.…”

“…The mathematical model of the human BS allowed us to perform a numerical experiment to study the physical bases of the WBC healthcare efficacy. Quite often [4,5] WBC is compared with the cold water immersion procedures. The basis for this comparison is that cryogenic gas and cold water remove a significant amount of heat from the body surface.…”

“…Equipment for whole-body cryotherapy (WBC) has been used in clinics around the world for over 40 years [1,2]. Despite this, until today there is no universally accepted concept describing the mechanism for achieving the healthcare effect of this physiotherapeutic procedure, and the physical conditions of safety and effectiveness of cryogenic cooling of the patient's skin surface have not been determined [3][4][5][6]. Temperature of the cooling gas and the duration of its contact with the patient's skin, being the most important technological parameters of WBC, vary over a wide range.…”

“…In such conditions, manufacturers of devices for WBC procedures gradually increase the value of the minimum gas temperature in the WBC cab. Over 40 years of cryotherapeutic system production, the gas temperature declared by manufacturers of devices for WBC has doubled from 98 K in 1978 [1,2] to 192 K [4][5][6][7]. By increasing the operating temperature of the equipment, manufacturers significantly reduce the cost of its production.…”