What is HPMC?

High-Pressure Medical Cryotherapy delivers intense, targeted cooling to a specific treatment area using high-pressure carbon dioxide (CO₂). The cooling rapidly lowers the temperature of the skin over the area being treated.

What happens in the body

When skin is cooled, nearby blood vessels narrow. This is called vasoconstriction. As the area naturally rewarms afterward, those vessels widen again (vasodilation).

HPMC is intended to help manage pain and inflammation and support mobility and recovery. It is important to separate what is directly observed, such as skin cooling and the vascular response, from broader therapeutic conclusions. Results vary from person to person, and cooling does not guarantee a particular outcome.

Pain signaling and inflammation

Cold can change how nerves signal sensations such as pain, and inflammation is one of the body's responses to irritation or injury. Researchers continue to study how cooling affects these processes.

Seeing temperature: thermal imaging

Thermal imaging can show surface temperature changes across an area. It is a way to observe skin temperature, and it does not by itself measure pain relief or healing.

How HPMC compares

Approach	How cooling is delivered	Typical timing
HPMC	Targeted, high-pressure CO₂ applied to one defined area	Seconds to minutes per area
Ice pack	Gradual, less controlled surface cooling	Often 15–20 minutes
Whole-body cryotherapy	Full-body exposure to extreme cold, usually in a chamber	A few minutes, whole body

Typical HPMC treatment takes about 3–6 minutes per area, and sessions last roughly 10–20 minutes depending on the areas treated.

Sources

A referenced list of peer-reviewed sources will appear here. Each source must be verified by the clinic before publishing.

This page is educational and is not medical advice.