Yes, you can get frostbite from cryotherapy. While serious injuries are uncommon, they are well documented in medical literature, ranging from superficial skin damage to full-thickness frostbite requiring skin grafts. Both whole-body cryotherapy chambers and localized cryotherapy treatments (like liquid nitrogen for wart removal) carry this risk.
How Cryotherapy Causes Frostbite
Whole-body cryotherapy exposes your skin to extremely cold, dry air, typically between negative 100°C and negative 170°C, for sessions lasting two to five minutes. At these temperatures, your skin cools rapidly. Researchers have identified that skin needs to drop below about 13.6°C to trigger the pain-relieving effects people seek from cryotherapy, but if skin temperature falls further toward 0°C, ice crystals begin forming in the tissue. That’s frostbite.
The risk increases dramatically if any part of your body contacts a metal surface inside the chamber. Touching aluminum at negative 20°C causes frostbite in as little as one second. Materials like wood or fabric don’t conduct heat fast enough to pose the same danger, which is why cryotherapy facilities typically require gloves, socks, and slippers during sessions.
Localized cryotherapy, where a clinician applies liquid nitrogen directly to a small area of skin, works differently but carries similar risks. The frostbite risk rises significantly when freezing lasts longer than 30 seconds or when the clinician applies two or more freeze-thaw cycles to the same spot.
Documented Cases of Injury
A case series published in the medical literature described three patients who suffered frostbite from single whole-body cryotherapy sessions. One, a 26-year-old man, developed a full-thickness injury severe enough to require surgical excision and a skin graft. The other two patients, ages 17 and 28, sustained partial-thickness injuries, meaning the damage went deep into the skin but didn’t destroy it entirely.
Localized treatments have caused serious harm as well. In one reported case, a 37-year-old woman received liquid nitrogen cryospray at a walk-in dermatology clinic to treat a single wart on her finger. After treatment, a large blister formed, followed by redness and swelling. When the wound was examined more closely, it turned out to be a full-thickness injury roughly 2 centimeters across, with damage extending down to the tendon. She ultimately needed reconstructive surgery using tissue from an adjacent finger.
The FDA has noted that the most serious injuries it has received reports about from hot/cold therapy devices are associated with cold therapy. Those injuries range from numbness to frostbite severe enough to require skin grafts or, in the worst cases, amputation.
Who Faces Higher Risk
Certain medical conditions make frostbite from cryotherapy more likely. People with poor circulation, peripheral vascular disease, or Raynaud’s phenomenon (a condition where blood vessels in the fingers and toes constrict excessively in the cold) are especially vulnerable. When blood flow to an area is already compromised, even brief cold exposure can push tissue past the tipping point.
Medications matter too. If you’ve had a local anesthetic containing epinephrine before a cryotherapy procedure, the drug narrows blood vessels in the treated area, reducing blood flow and making cold-induced damage more likely. Other medications that affect circulation can have a similar compounding effect.
Normal Reactions vs. Warning Signs
Some skin changes after cryotherapy are expected. Redness at the treatment site is normal and appears almost immediately. Blistering, mild swelling, and clear fluid drainage can all occur without indicating a problem. If a blister forms, you should leave it intact rather than popping it.
The signs that something has gone wrong are distinct. Watch for redness or swelling that spreads beyond the treated area into surrounding skin, increasing pain rather than fading discomfort, skin that feels hot or unusually hard to the touch, yellow or green drainage, or a foul smell. Persistent numbness, white or grayish patches, or skin that feels waxy are classic frostbite signs that need prompt medical attention.
How Safe Sessions Are Structured
Research on whole-body cryotherapy suggests that two to two and a half minutes is the effective range for most people. Studies on elite rugby players found that a two-minute exposure at negative 135°C, following a 30-second pre-cooling phase at negative 60°C, produced beneficial physiological responses without negative effects. Extending sessions to three minutes introduced problems without added benefit.
One important finding is that body composition affects how quickly your skin cools. People with lower body fat lose skin temperature faster and reach potentially dangerous thresholds sooner, which means a one-size-fits-all session length doesn’t account for individual variation. Some research facilities now monitor skin temperature in real time and adjust session duration based on each person’s response rather than using a fixed timer.
Facilities that follow safety protocols will ask you to keep your extremities covered, stay dry (moisture on skin accelerates cooling and increases frostbite risk), and avoid touching any metal surfaces. Sessions should never exceed the recommended time, and you should be able to exit the chamber immediately if you feel sharp pain, burning, or numbness that goes beyond normal cold discomfort.
The Bigger Picture on Risk
The FDA has stated plainly that the healing benefits of whole-body cryotherapy are unconfirmed. Despite widespread marketing claims about reducing inflammation and speeding muscle recovery, published scientific literature has not substantiated these benefits. That context matters when weighing the risk of frostbite, however small, against the potential reward. For localized medical cryotherapy performed by a trained clinician to treat warts or skin lesions, the risk-benefit calculation is different because the treatment has a clear medical purpose, but the frostbite risk still exists and depends heavily on technique, duration, and your individual circulation.