SeaKa Products, Inc. is Canadian importer for The Gebauer Company’s family of Patient Comfort Solutions™. In Canada, all of Gebauer’s vapocoolants are licensed with Health Canada as Class II Medical Devices (www.mdall.ca).
This site is intended to educate both users and those interested in using Gebauer’s products while also serving as an online store for Canadian customers.
What Is a Vapocoolant?
Also sometimes referred to as ‘skin refrigerants’, vapocoolants provide an instantaneous cooling effect on the surface of the skin. This cooling effect is the direct result of rapid and immediate evaporation. Delivered as an aerosol, the rapid onset of cold temporarily numbs the skin by decreasing nerve conductivity at the cooled site, interrupting the stimuli to the brain that would, under normal circumstances, record the pain sensation. This cooling effect lasts for up to 60 seconds.
Why Are Vapocoolants Used?
Almost anyone who has watched – or played – rugby, European football, hockey or other contact sports has seen vapocoolants in use for STAT management of a sports injury. In these situations vapocoolants are used like ice for managing muscle spasm and for the temporary relief and reduction of minor pain and swelling from sprains, strains, bruising, contusions and minor sports injuries.
When used by a healthcare professional, vapocoolants can be used to help control pain associated with injections, venipuncture, I.V. starts and a variety of minor surgical procedures. Vapocoolants can also be used for treatment of myofascial pain.
History of Use*
The Gebauer Company has been inextricably linked with the history of vapocoolant use.
- 1901 – Charles Gebauer patented a re-sealable metal tube that allowed for jet stream dispensing of ethyl chloride (then only available from Germany).
- 1902 – Charles and Theophil Gebauer first produced ethyl chloride.
- 1906 – Charles Gebauer patented an ethyl chloride inhaling device for general anesthesia.
- World Wars I & II – The Gebauer Chemical Company supplied large quantities of Gebauer’s Ethyl Chloride® to the armed forces; doctors applied the anesthetic on the battlefield for emergency operations.
- In 1953 – Gebauer developed a nonflammable topical aerosol cold spray product called Gebauer’s Fluro-Ethyl® for use by plastic surgeons in a procedure called skin planing (dermabrasion).
- 1939-1941 – Dr. Janet G. Travell became absorbed in the problems of skeletal muscle pain, and developed new anesthetic techniques for treating painful muscle spasm by employing local procaine injection and vapocoolant sprays such as Gebauer’s Ethyl chloride.
- 1983 – Dr. Travell co-authored, with David Simons, the acclaimed book Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction: The Trigger Point Manual (Volume 1).
- 1992 – Travell and Simons published Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction: The Trigger Point Manual (Volume 2).
- 2003 – Canadian licensing of Gebauer’s Spray and Stretch® Fine Stream and Gebauer’s Instant Ice®.
- 2004 – Canadian licensing of Gebauer’s Pain Ease® Topical Anesthetic.
Current Use
Please contact us so, together, we can determine the best Gebauer product to meet your needs.
* Those interested in more historical details can find in brief a history of vapocoolants in sports and rehabilitative medicine in the Sports Illustrated article, “Spray em, Play em” (June 15, 1981), by Wayne Oscar Johnson.