Talk:Cryotherapy

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Question: Does cryotherapy only refer to the tank method, or does it also include icepacking? --Travisthurston 01:44, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] This does not sound like medical cryotherapy

I am not sure if this description of cryotherapy is accurate/appropriate. In medical literature, cryotherapy, also known as cryosurgery, is a commonly used in-office procedure for the treatment of a variety of benign and malignant (cancerous) lesions. The description given here is inadequately referenced and based upon dubious science. I was able to find the article that this entry is based/lifted from http://www.toytowngermany.com/lofi/index.php/t20572.html.

Well, in that case...

You're right. I performed that procedure as an intern this week. I'll look more into that verbiage. This description for the term may be third in priority after cryosurgery and icepacking. Thanks! --Travisthurston 01:02, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

User Vuo changed this to the previous description without discussion. Since people will refer to this entry, I would like to see an accurate medical description, rather than writing based upon popular (and dubious) press. If this is an acceptable practice of the term "cryotherapy," please provide some medical/scentific journal references. Please feel free to make comments. Neurodoc 05:20, 1 October 2006 (EST)

The article about cryosurgery already exists. Cryotherapy is an alternate, less accurate term. --Vuo 01:00, 2 October 2006 (UTC)


  • This article should include both. The most common use for the term cyrotherapy refers to cryosurgery. This is a standard medical definition. We could include both descriptions, with links to cryosurgery and cryotherapy (chamber therapy) I recommend that Vuo starts to merge this info to that page. --Travisthurston 16:20, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

--> There, I already started it. cryotherapy (chamber therapy)

Good. This sounds like an acceptable compromise. Neurodoc 12:54, 4 October 2006 (EST)

okay Let's change the cryotherapy page to have the modern medical definition first (similar to cryosurgery), plus a secondary definition/ "could also be known as" section of the chamber technique with a link to Cryotherapy (chamber therapy). A little disamb section at the top would be best too. --Travisthurston 05:19, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
Let's give Vuo a few days to get their take..?
I see no reason to break the current structure. Think of the user's point of view. In order to get to the article about cryotherapy, he goes to a the cryotherapy disambiguation page, which has links to cryosurgery and cryotherapy. Including a link to the other uses at the top of the article is standard practice on Wikipedia to avoid pointless disambiguation pages. --Vuo 16:44, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
Same from the other side. When I tell my patients to come in for cryotherapy appointment, they may go to wikipedia to look it up, then come in with their swimtrunks... I imagine that there are thousands of cryosurgeries happening everyday all over the world, many being termed as cryotherapy. For such a simple procedure, we choose to not to use "surgery". Patients would rather come in for therapy than surgery. The DAB section of the main article would only benefit the user. --Travisthurston 20:18, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] References not in English.

Also, the first two refs are not in english and don't belong on the english language wikipedia. We could do a babelfish translation on them. [1], [2]... Is there a Finnish wiki? --Travisthurston 20:40, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

You're seriously mistaken if you think only English references are considered reliable sources by Wikipedia, or that they're forbidden. I remember a text from the 1940's Finland that first listed the correct facts (from Finnish sources) and then mentioned the unreliable sources also: "According to foreign sources, ..." --Vuo 22:22, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

It's not the reliability I am talking about. If the ref was in english, I could make a judgement of whether or not the source is reliable. dig? I think any source is better than none, and welcome as many as needed. All I am asking is that someone close to the article translates it to english.
See WP:CITE for clarification on what is a good ref. Look for this passage. "Because this is the English Wikipedia, English-language sources should be given whenever possible, and should always be used in preference to other language sources of equal calibre. However, do give references in other languages where appropriate. If quoting from a different language source, an English translation should be given with the original-language quote beside it." --Travisthurston 23:13, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New format

I changed the page to include all uses of the term. (or the top three) I 'll flag down an admin to confirm that the expanded DAB nature of this article is wiki-approved. Please build on it! Thanks. --Travisthurston 16:28, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

I still disagree with this, given the fact that the separate articles for cryosurgery and ice pack therapy exist. Furthermore, the formatting is poor and the chamber therapy article is not updated accordingly (still contains the copyvio or how-to-style text). Cryogenic chambers don't have any cold water in them. --Vuo 22:26, 7 October 2006 (UTC)
Yeah, I figured. I have seen all of your reverts. Have you tried googling the term? Looking it up anywhere else? I'll fix the copyvio situation, and clarify that chamber therapy doesn't involve any water. Anything else that you can think of? --Travisthurston 02:40, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
Entrez PubMed gives a mixture of the different meanings, at least. --Vuo 10:24, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
Just a comment - Glad to see the new format. I think this restructued format will be of benefit to readers learning about cryotherapy/surgery. --Neurodoc 3:05, 04 Octover 2006 (EST)