Assessment of efficacy of carboxytherapy in reducing thickness of abdominal subcutaneous fat through clinical and ultrasonographical studies: a randomized 2-split clinical trial.

The prevalence of overweight/obesity is continuing its relentless global rise. In this condition, the risk of some disorders such as cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hirsutism, menstrual abnormalities, gallbladder disease, arthritis, and some site-specific cancers is increased. In the current study, we assessed the efficacy of carboxytherapy in reducing thickness of the abdominal subcutaneous fat through clinical and ultrasonographical studies. Our study was a prospective, randomized, single-blind, 2-split clinical trial in which 30 obese subjects with abdominal adiposity were recruited. In each case carboxytherapy was randomly done on the one side of abdomen (interventional group) every 2 weeks for 5 sessions, while the contralateral side was left without therapy (control group). Before every session, data of subjective and objective clinical assessments, body weight, BMI, waist circumference, and waist to hip circumference ratio were collected. Two weeks after the last session, the thickness of different skin layers was measured by ultrasonography in the both study groups. Of 30 subjects, 20 were female (66.67%) and 10 were male (33.33%), with mean age of 39.16 years (± 9.51). The mean weight, BMI, waist circumference, and waist to hip circumference ratio demonstrated significant decrease during the study. The subjective and objective assessments both showed significant improvement. The subcutis thickness revealed a statistically significant decrease in the interventional group, with no significant difference between males and females. No significant complication was reported. Carboxytherapy is a safe and effective modality in the management of local fat deposits.Clinical trial registry code: IRCT20220517054900N1.