THE EFFECT OF WHOLE BODY GAS CRYOTHERAPY ON THE HUMAN THERMAL STATE

Abstract

The therapeutic effect of the whole body gas cryotherapy (WBGC) procedure is achieved when the average temperature of the human’s (patient’s) skin surface during the procedure is in a certain temperature range, and the rate of reduction of this temperature exceeds a certain threshold value. The paper presents the results of a theoretical analysis of the patient’s thermal state at the stage of the therapeutic effect of WBGC. The analysis was based on the results of the numerical simulation of temperature distribution in different parts of patients (mеn) of different body constitution (height, cm × mass, kg) 160 × 60, 175 × 75, 190 × 90. Particular attention was paid to the relationship between the amount of heat flow removed from the skin surface and the rate of cooling of the skin of a patient. The results of numerical modeling are presented graphically and are summarized as the ratio between the dimensionless average temperature of the skin at the treatment stage of the WBGC procedure and the time of the patient’s stay in the procedural chamber, referred to the time of the beginning of this stage. With regard to WBGC within the temperatures range of –160 to –110 °C the following regularities were found: 1) approximate constancy (descripancy less than 1 %) at the stage of therapeutic modality of the coefficient of heat transfer from the skin surface to the gas medium in the treatment chamber; 2) the exponential dependence of the value of cutaneous blood flow rate (blood perfusion) on the mean temperature of cooled cutaneous coverings; 3) linear dependence of the logarithm of the ratio of the rate of skin temperature reduction to the value of heat flux density removed by convection and radiation on the logarithm time.