Icing after arthroscopic knee surgery

  Knee arthroscopy has been widely used in clinical practice with the advantages of small injury, small incision and quick recovery, and has become an important tool for the diagnosis and treatment of knee diseases. However, complications such as limb swelling, pain, subcutaneous bruising and intra-articular fluid accumulation are likely to occur after knee arthroscopy, and our department uses early ice to effectively control the occurrence of complications.  After arthroscopy, although the patient’s wound may appear to be small, the surgical operation removes a large amount of synovial membrane, bone flab, damaged meniscus and other structures, resulting in extensive trauma to the bone and soft tissue in the joint. Early postoperative icing can effectively reduce patient pain, limb swelling, subcutaneous bruising and joint cavity effusion. This is because ice can reduce the local skin temperature, inhibit cellular activity, reduce the sensitivity of nerve endings, slow down nerve conduction and reduce pain. At the same time, by stimulating the cold receptors of the skin, it causes the contraction of the blood answer, inhibits the release of inflammatory transmitters and inhibits the permeability of the microhematocrit, thus reducing swelling and subcutaneous and intra-articular exudation.  Ice bag production method: Due to the unevenness of the physiological structure of the knee joint, the ice bags sold in the market cannot be deformed at will to cover the knee joint adequately, which affects the ice effect. For this reason, we use crushed ice in a large plastic bag (available in supermarkets), crushed ice into the bag 1/3 full, add a small amount of tap water to form a mixture of ice and water, the mouth of the bag tied tightly or sealed with tape, so that it is easy to adjust the shape of the ice bag to make full contact with the knee joint. Use 2 layers of dry towels to separate the ice pack from the knee joint to avoid wetting the wound dressing. When using the ice pack, check whether the homemade ice pack is intact to avoid infection caused by leakage and soaking of the wound; the ice pack should not be applied for too long, 20-30 minutes each time to avoid local frostbite.  It has been observed that early icing after knee arthroscopy can significantly reduce pain and swelling, and facilitate early implementation of functional knee rehabilitation exercises. This icing method is simple, safe, economical and efficacious, which is convenient for clinical application.