Beauty institutions cannot practice cryotherapy

An aesthetic practice performed a cryotherapy session on a client. The latter suffered frostbite, causing him a total incapacity for work of one and a half months. The Paris Court of Appeal noted that cryotherapy must be performed by health professionals. Thus, all non-medical professionals who engage in cryotherapy may be convicted of practicing medicine illegally.

The Court of Cassation upholds the Court of Appeal's judgment. It concerns a decree of January 1962 which lists the acts reserved for doctors and the public health code for the acts reserved for masseurs-kinesitherapists. For judges, cryotherapy is not allowed to non-medical professionals, even if it is a comfort operation without a restorative medical purpose.

The Court of Cassation adds that this is a necessary and proportionate limit for the protection of public health.