Abstract

Aim and scope: The primary purpose of this study was to sample the opinion of physiotherapists on the prescription of cryoanalgesia for patients’ home based use in Nigeria. Material and methods: A total of 152 physiotherapists (PTs) were selected from hospitals in south-west Nigeria. The instrument used in this study was a structured self-administered questionnaire. The respondents were to choose option of either ‘Agree’ or ‘Disagree’ with each opinion statement in the questionnaire. Results: One hundred and seven (70.4%) were practising prescription of cryoanalgesia because they felt their clients needed more treatment sessions than they offered at the clinic. However, their prescription was not due to exhaustion at work during normal clinic hours. The PTs who believed that the treatment sessions at the clinics were inadequate was significantly higher (X2 = 262.5, p < 0.05) than those who felt it was appropriate. Among those that were yet to practise the prescription for home-based use, 100 (65.8%) indicated their readiness to do so if they feel their clients need more treatment sessions than they have offered at the clinic. Furthermore, most physiotherapists significantly disagreed with the opinion that they have preference for other modalities to manage pain (X2 = 74.907, P = 0.001), or that there were inadequate scientific evidences supporting the usage of cryoanalgesics (X2 = 99.227, P = 0. 001). The result showed that most physiotherapists significantly agreed that the possibility of contraindications (X2 = 72.257, P = 0.001) and the possibility of complications (X2 = 4.252, P = 0.001) might prevent them from prescribing cryoanalgesia.