Cryolipolysis

Cold-assisted lipolysis · CoolSculpting Elite, AbbVie

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How it works

A fold of skin and fat drawn into a cup and cooled

EpidermisDermisFatMuscleVacuum applicatordown to -11 °C35 – 45 min
  1. Cooling surfacesdown to -11 °C
  2. Cycle35 – 45 min

The vacuum draws the fold in and holds it against the cooled surfaces for the cycle; released and massaged afterwards.

EpidermisDermisFatMuscleVacuum applicatordown to -11 °C35 – 45 min
  1. Cooling surfacesdown to -11 °C
  2. Cycle35 – 45 min

The vacuum draws the fold in and holds it against the cooled surfaces for the cycle; released and massaged afterwards.

Held against surfaces cooled down to -11 °C for 35 to 45 minutes. The vacuum applicator “draws tissue into the applicator cup and holds the tissue against the cooling surfaces”, the manual states, cooled down to -11 °C for 35 to 45 minutes, the time set by the applicator; a flat applicator for fat that cannot be pinched runs down to -13 °C for 75 minutes. Not for a fat layer thinner than 1 cm. The filed use is cold-assisted lipolysis, the breakdown of fat. Illustrations are schematic.

What it costs

Treating the abdomen costs $650 – $1,500 a cycle on clinic pages

Tap to add or remove an area. Quoted combinations apply where listed.

AreaOne cycle
large applicator, one per area$650 – $1,500a cycle
Per side, per applicator placement$650 – $1,020a cycle
Per side, per applicator placement$650 – $750a cycle
Per side, per applicator placement$650 – $1,020a cycle
Prices are per cycle, not for both sides or a full course. The pages price the applicator and say which area goes on it: one each side on a flank, an upper arm or a thigh, one large applicator on the abdomen, the CoolMini under the chin, one page states. An area takes one cycle or several: four on the abdomen, one a side on a pair, another page states. Canadian dollars before tax, as the clinic pages state them: ten read, five with a price.

Results & duration

A thinner fat layer at six months in the flank study

Every study is the maker’s, read from its manual. Nine in ten before photos picked out by blinded reviewers, and eight in ten satisfied, in the maker’s flank study. 60 people, one or more placements on the larger flank bulge at -4 to -10 °C for 30 to 60 minutes, the other side left untreated. Ultrasound put the fat layer 18.7% thinner at 6 months than at the start, corrected for the untreated side. The six later studies, five of them one an area, are summarised under each column.

Ultrasound measurement

Fat layer thinner at six months

18.7%

Change from baseline in the maker’s flank study, corrected for the untreated side. This measures fat-layer thickness, not body weight or the share of people who improved.

AbbVie manual CS-UM-CM3-02-EN-M, Appendix A, flank study

Blinded photo review

Before photo picked out

88.6%

Three reviewers assessed before and after photo series from fifty evaluable people, identifying the before series 88.6% of the time in the flank study. The manual states an 80% pass mark for the abdomen, second flank and submental studies. Photo-review results in the later studies: 85.3% for the abdomen, 90.5 and 83.9% the inner and outer thigh, 91.4% under the chin, 85.2% the upper arm, 85% in a second flank study at -15 °C for 45 minutes.

AbbVie manual CS-UM-CM3-02-EN-M, Appendix A, the flank study and Table 16

Patient-rated

Satisfied with the treatment

82.1%of 60 people

Asked at follow-up in the flank study. In the later studies: 62% for the abdomen, 93.3 and 86.5% the inner and outer thigh, 83.3% under the chin, 88.37% in the second flank study; 63.3% in the upper-arm study would recommend it to a friend.

AbbVie manual CS-UM-CM3-02-EN-M, Appendix A, the flank study and Table 16

How long does CoolSculpting last?

Measured to 6 months in the flank study, three quarters of the reduction reached within 2 months; the thigh studies followed people for 16 weeks, the chin and upper-arm studies for 12. The manual does not say whether the reduction lasts beyond its follow-up, and none of its studies re-measured after the last visit.

AbbVie manual CS-UM-CM3-02-EN-M, Appendix A

Recovery & risks

Numbness can outlast redness and swelling

Flank study · 60 people, and the manual’s adverse-event tables

  • Numb or tingling at one week68%
  • Still numb or tingling at two months8.3%
During
Pulling, tugging and mild pinching as the cup holds the fold for its 35 to 45 minutes; intense cold, stinging, aching and cramping, which subside as the area goes numb, the manual states.
The first weeks
Red and firm at first, blanched or bruised at the edges of the cup; then redness, bruising and swelling, tenderness, cramping and itching for one to two weeks, the manual states. Everyone in the flank study left partly numb over the site; 68% still were at one week, gone within two to three weeks on average, and lasting as long as two months in 8.3%.
Months later
Paradoxical hyperplasia, the treated area growing rather than shrinking, 2 to 5 months after a treatment, and surgery may be required, the manual states; late-onset pain begins several days after and usually resolves within several weeks.
Not for
A fat layer thinner than 1 cm, and three cold-sensitive blood conditions the manual contraindicates: cryoglobulinemia, cold agglutinin disease and paroxysmal cold haemoglobinuria. Not studied with a hernia at the site, on blood thinners, or in pregnancy.

Rare adverse events in the manual

Paradoxical hyperplasia: 4 cases in the 4,792 treatments of the published studies the manual reviews, among 6 serious events in all, 0.13%. Freeze burn, late-onset pain, hernia: listed in the manual as rare, no rate.

Paradoxical hyperplasia: the area grows

Freeze burn

Late-onset pain

Table 4 of AbbVie’s user manual, and its review of published studies · Illustrations are schematic.

Read from the manual, its flank study and its adverse-event tables. Numb or tingling for two in three at a week; redness, bruising and swelling for one to two weeks, the manual states. The diaries are the flank study’s 60 people; the lines are the manual’s tables of common and rare adverse events, which give no rate. Paradoxical hyperplasia, the area growing rather than shrinking, is the harm the manual’s own review of published studies counts: 4 cases in 4,792 treatments.

Frequently asked questions

Licensed since September 2024. Health Canada’s licence 111857 lists the CoolSculpting Elite system, a Class III medical device, to Zeltiq Aesthetics, whose manual AbbVie hosts. The manual states the use as cold-assisted lipolysis, the breakdown of fat, of the upper arm, bra fat, back fat, banana roll, thigh, abdomen and flank in people with a body mass index of 30 or less, and of the area under the chin and jaw up to a BMI of 46.2. A licence records Health Canada’s review of the device against its safety and effectiveness requirements for the use filed; it does not establish every benefit, area or duration a clinic advertises.Health Canada · MDALL licence 111857 · AbbVie manual CS-UM-CM3-02-EN-M, Table 1

GST or HST applies to taxable cosmetic treatments: 13% in Ontario, 5% where only GST is charged. The clinic prices here are before tax. A treatment for a medical or reconstructive purpose may be exempt when it meets the applicable health-care exemption’s conditions, including who supplies or performs the service; its purpose alone does not establish an exemption.Excise Tax Act · s. 165, Sch. V Pt. II ss. 1, 1.1, 1.2 and 5 to 7, Sch. VIII

Ontario names no controlled act for it. Cooling the skin is not among the forms of energy the Controlled Acts regulation prescribes — electricity, electromagnetism and soundwaves, each for listed uses — and nothing is injected or cut, so operating it is no controlled act under the Regulated Health Professions Act; the College of Nurses of Ontario’s guideline on aesthetic services (2026) states that an activity involving no controlled act may be assigned rather than delegated. The manual restricts the system to a trained physician or a physician-designated medical professional, and adds that in the United States federal law restricts it to sale by or on the order of a physician. Other provinces set their own rules.RHPA s. 27(2), para 7 · O. Reg. 107/96 s. 1 · CNO · Aesthetic services, practice guideline (2026) · AbbVie manual CS-UM-CM3-02-EN-M, Precautions

Not in the figures above. Every number is from Zeltiq’s own studies as the maker’s manual reports them: the flank study behind the first clearance and six later studies, each sponsored by the maker and written up in its own document; the manual cites no paper as theirs. The manual’s review of published studies, 4,792 treatments, is the maker’s compilation too, its papers listed without their authors’ ties. This page cites no trial run by anyone else.AbbVie manual CS-UM-CM3-02-EN-M, Appendix A

About a fifth of the layer, by ultrasound: 18.7% in the flank study at 6 months, against the start, corrected for the untreated side. In millimetres, the manual’s later studies: 1.9 on the abdomen, 2.8 and 2.5 the inner and outer thigh at 16 weeks, 3.92 in the second flank study, 3.2 the upper arm at 12 weeks, 2 under the chin 12 weeks after the second of two treatments. Across the published studies the manual reviews, the mean ultrasound reduction was 20.6%, 3.9 mm. A layer thinner than 1 cm is not treated.AbbVie manual CS-UM-CM3-02-EN-M, Appendix A, Table 16

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