A study was conducted by Selman Emiroglu and colleagues in 60 patients to evaluate the therapeutic effect of cryotherapy on postoperative pain management following breast-conserving surgery and assess its effect on the quality of recovery.

2 groups were defined randomly, and each included 30 patients. The first group received cryotherapy while the control group did not.

The “Cryotherapy” group had a higher quality of recovery than the control group. Indeed, during the first 24 hours, only 4 (12.5 %) of the patients in the Cryotherapy group received additional analgesics, while all the patients (100 %) in the control group received them.

The authors of the study concluded that cryotherapy is a simple and effective non-pharmacological method for relieving pain after surgery in breast cancer patients. A reduction in acute breast pain was observed, which contributed to improving the quality of patients' recovery.

This study was the subject of a scientific article which was published in 2023 in the journal Pain Management Nursing, under the title Effect of Cold Therapy on Managing Postoperative Pain Following Breast Conserving Surgery.