Cryotherapy at home

Evil Multifarious

So it looks as though I have a pernicious little infection of molluscum contagiosum. I've gone for one cryotherapy treatment, and I am making an appointment for next Friday to get another one.

However, it is a pretty intense infection, and I had been scratching and rubbing as a normal human tends to do with their body, long before I realized I had a communicable infection. I want to be able to treat new, small infections that might arise on my chest, arms, or god forbid, face, before they autoinoculate and spread into larger infections.

Is there any kind of cryotherapy I could do at home? Is there any way to obtain liquid nitrogen or similar extreme-cold substances, which I could then administer with a q-tip? Preferably something that won't destroy my floor if I knock it over?

Salicylic acid is a possible treatment for molluscum but it's more of a long-term thing. I'd like something to suppress an early infection, and cryotherapy is the most efficient.

I'd rather not be reduced to eviscerating my bumps with a toothpick or sharp knife.

ProPatriaMori

Yeah, you can actually pick up little kits at pharmacies or grocery stores. I don't know the details about them but they're the sorts of things that get used to freeze off warts, etc, so I imagine that's what you're after.

Evil Multifarious

most of the kits i've seen are not really freeze therapy but salicylic acid, though.

Feral

There's stuff like this: Freeze-Off but I don't know how well it works.

Forbe!

They sell cryotherapy kits, like feral just posted, that consist of a plastic cone to place around the wart/skin tag, and a can of compressed CO2 that sprays upsidedown, releasing a cold liquid. A lot of doctors simply use this. The area of skin will turn black and fall off in a few days. It is much less painful than Liquid Nitrogen

illig

Compound W Freeze off is basically that (a freezing liquid/gas pumped into a hollow Q-tip)

Amazon Link

<edit> holy hell, it's only $11. I spent like $25 at my local store. :x

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud

You really don't want -134 Celsisus N2 on your skin...seriously.

Duffel

Amazingly, duct tape is more effective than cryotherapy for your particular infection - at least, according to Wiki.

Wikipedia wrote:

Duct Tape
Application of duct tape over lesions until they begin to crust over and heal is well tolerated, has been effective,[24] and can be implemented at home with readily available materials. Tape is cut to the size of lesions and applied after washing or when previously applied tape falls off. This treatment for molluscum was motivated by success with treating warts similarly. The conclusions of a controlled study were that duct tape occlusion therapy was significantly more effective than cryotherapy for treatment of the common wart.[25]

The citations seem pretty reputable:

^ Lindau MS, Munar (2004). "Use of duct tape for treatment of recurrent molluscum contagiosum" (in English). Pediatric Dermatology 21 (5): 609.
^ Focht DR, Spicer C, Fairchok MP (2002). "The Efficacy of Duct Tape vs Cryotherapy in the Treatment of Verruca Vulgaris (the Common Wart)" (in English). Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 156 (10): 971.

Might be bullshit, but if it worked it would save you some trouble.

Evil Multifarious

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud wrote: »

You really don't want -134 Celsisus N2 on your skin...seriously.

It's the standard treatment for molluscum. The doctor did it on saturday, just dipping a Q tip and pressing it against each nodule. It stings a bit, and the pain depends on how aggressive you are with it (I told her to press as hard as she felt was medically safe, because I didn't mind the pain and I want these fuckers gone).

It's also really cool to watch and listen to, because it's hissing like crazy and of course sublimating into a thick white gas (moreso when it comes near your skin).

Compound W and similar tend to be alcohol or acid - are you sure it's a freezing agent? I don't really care what's more or less painful, I care about what's effective.

Duct tape I've read about, but as a guy who's really hairy, I'm not the best patient for it. It is also very inadvisable to shave that hair because it will spread the infection around quite a bit, apparently.

Improvolone

I don't think you need a license for liquid N2. I worked in a science museum and we used that stuff on a regular basis. I beleive we had our dewars filled at a chemical supply warehouse. Granted we were getting a couple dozen gallons of the stuff at a time and I don't know how much it cost, but it might be difficult to get someone to give you a small supply. You need proper storage for it because it evaporates at room temperature, so even if someone gave you a thermos full (for the love of GOD don't seal it shut or it will explode) it will have evaporated in a matter of hours.
Your best bet for liquid N2 from what I've read is to nicely ask a college lab for a bit in a styrofoam cup.

ProPatriaMori

Yeah N2 has the storage issue. Gas expansion cooling ala the little kits can probably still generate the temperatures you want.

metaghost

I can vouch for the Duct Tape.

When I was in college I got some molluscum on the bottom of a couple toes and had a dermatologist do cryotherapy. It gave me ye olde corpse toe, but the molluscum managed to survive.

My then girlfriend's mom smacked me around and told me to cover them with with duct tape. They were gone in a week.

Edit - I understand about the "hairy factor" though. Still, it works.

Feral

Evil Multifarious wrote: »

Compound W and similar tend to be alcohol or acid - are you sure it's a freezing agent? I don't really care what's more or less painful, I care about what's effective.

There is Compound W, which is salicyclic acid, and then there is Compound W Freeze Off, which I linked and is a freezing agent.

Like I said, I dunno how well it works though.

Improvolone

It didn't work on a wart of mine.

Forbe!

Duct tape never worked for me. After 2 months of trying it the ductape every day, the cryotherapy worked in one session.