In cryotherapy, also known as cryosurgery, cold temperatures are used to treat a wide variety of skin diseases in modern dermatology. However, cryotherapy has its humble roots as far back as the Egyptians in 3000 BCE, when cold compresses were used to treat the inflammation of infected wounds.1 In the fifth century BCE, Hannibal’s Carthaginian mercenaries experienced the hemostatic and destructive tissue effects of the cold while crossing the Alps en route to Rome.2 In the Napoleonic times, cooling was used for anesthesia and amputation. It was not until the mid-1800s when modern use of cryotherapy was born.

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