Doctors ice treatment errors put patients at risk

ICE treatments for a range of skin complaints can go painfully wrong, lawyers investigating a sequence of mishaps involving the remedy have warned.

Cryotherapy - the application of liquid nitrogen to treat benign tumours like warts - is increasingly widespread in clinics and surgeries.

The nitrogen is sprayed or painted on to an area of skin by a doctor or nurse. If successful, the unwanted tissue is frozen and killed.

But the treatment can cause painful blisters and leave a patient with scars, solicitor Frances Letchford said.

"We believe a worrying number of patients have been burned by cryotherapy, either because of a blunder or defective equipment.

"What was meant to be a simple procedure carried out by a local surgery ends up because of medical negligence with third degree burns and hospital visits for wound dressing."

One south-west woman who suffered painful blisters and burns from the ice treatment was unable to walk or grasp objects.

Cryotherapy was being used to remove her warts and verrucas.

"The treatement caused my skin to form in a raised yellow welt," the woman, who cannot be named, said.

"I told the doctor it was painful and asked if the treatment could stop.

"But the liquid nitrogen continued to be applied from a dispenser like a small fire extinguisher. Layers were applied on top of one another.

"The next day, as I couldn't walk, and the blisters were worryingly inflamed, I went to hospital. The nurse in the hospital was amazed by what she saw and couldn't believe it was as a result from
a doctor's treatment."

The woman was prescribed antibiotics because the hospital feared she could develop an infection. She is now taking legal action against her local NHS primary care trust

"Her blisters needed to be drained twice a day for a week and she had to take two weeks sick leave," Mrs Letchford, of solicitors Bond Pearce, said.

"This is a potentially dangerous treatment and it is alarming to think that liquid nitrogen could be in the hands of poorly-trained staff.

"And it may not be the safest approach to the treatment of warts."

A 2002 study by the University of East Anglia of a variety of treatments for warts found that the most common treatment, salicylic acid, was reported to have the highest cure rate - 75 per cent.

"It was also the safest," Mrs Letchford said. "Cryotherapy appeared to be no more effective than salicylic acid but was reported by many patients to be painful.

"The researchers said that many warts go away without any treatment. The advice for someone who develops a wart was to leave it alone or maybe try salicylic acid for three months.

"Only if this fails and the patient is very distressed by the warts should more aggressive treatments like liquid nitrogen be tried."

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