Cryotherapy (and Why It Fell Out of Use)
Cryotherapy — freezing hemorrhoidal tissue to destroy it — was used as a treatment option in past decades but has largely fallen out of favor, replaced by the procedures covered elsewhere in this section. It’s included here mainly so you recognize the term if you encounter it in older material, rather than as a currently recommended option.
- Cryotherapy used extreme cold (via a specialized probe) to destroy hemorrhoidal tissue.
- It fell out of favor mainly due to a longer, messier recovery and less predictable results compared to newer alternatives.
- If you see this mentioned as a current treatment recommendation, it’s worth asking why, given more established alternatives exist.
How it worked
A specialized cryoprobe applied extreme cold directly to hemorrhoidal tissue, causing cell destruction and eventual tissue sloughing, broadly similar in overall goal to the coagulation-based procedures covered elsewhere in this section, but through freezing rather than heat or mechanical strangulation.
Why it’s rarely used today
Cryotherapy generally involved a longer, often messier recovery period compared to alternatives like rubber band ligation or infrared coagulation — including prolonged discharge and drainage as the frozen tissue broke down over an extended period. Results were also less predictable and controllable compared to the more targeted, quicker-healing alternatives that have largely replaced it. As other options with more favorable recovery profiles and more established outcome data became standard, cryotherapy’s use declined substantially.
What replaced it
Rubber band ligation, infrared coagulation, sclerotherapy, and other approaches covered in this section generally offer quicker recovery, more predictable results, and are more widely taught and available today — see Office procedures: an overview for the current standard landscape.
What to do if this is recommended to you today
If a clinician suggests cryotherapy specifically, it’s reasonable to ask why, given that more established, better-studied alternatives are generally available and preferred in current practice — this isn’t meant to suggest the clinician is wrong, but this is a legitimate question to ask given how uncommon this specific approach has become.
This page is for general historical and educational context. Cryotherapy is not a commonly recommended current treatment for hemorrhoids.