The device, which is being used by approximately six teams throughout the league, costs more than your average General Electric fridge. The Stirling cryocooler costs $53,000, the tanks are about $240 apiece, with each treatment working out to about $7 a pop.
A local gas company comes around every 7-10 days to replace the tanks, which is the equivalent of about 40 procedures. During an average day, seven players use the chamber and four use it twice a day.
Grant Hill, Channing Frye, Jared Dudley and Michael Redd are some of the early-adopters of the procedure. Although they feel cold and begin shivering inside the Petroleum Logging Dewar, the nitrogen only penetrates 1-2 millimeters of the skin’s surface.
On a psychological level, the cooling blast provides a boost of energy, but it actually has a physiological effect on the body. It dramatically decreases inflammation and it removes lactic acid.
“If a person has an injury, whether it’s a contusion or a strain, the blood running to the core and then coming back to the limbs with oxygenated blood redevelops injured cells and helps you heal faster,” Nelson said.
The Suns are currently using one cryo-chamber, but are upgrading to a new unit from the Ukraine in a couple of weeks. That device will be much taller and wider, better befitting NBA players.
“I could sit here all day,” Gortat said smiling. “But I don’t want to waste the tank.”
Leave it to the Suns medical staff to strike gold again. The Suns players have already missed fewer games than any other team in the league, and this was before this revolutionary chamber www.chinacryogenics.com arrived.
Now we’ll see how they can improve on already being the best.