After joint surgery, your doctor will usually apply cold compresses and heat therapy to promote recovery. This is something you should know, and it’s not something you can do wrong. Today I’ll review cold and heat therapy with you.
About cold therapy
The so-called cold therapy (cold therapy), is the use of lower than the body temperature of the medium after the intervention, so that the cooling to achieve the purpose of the treatment of disease. There are various methods, the most common of which are ice packs, ice water immersion and cold sprays. In the recovery period of joint disease injury, the most commonly used cold therapy method is ice.
First, the impact of cold therapy on the joint after surgery
After joint injury, reasonable cold therapy can have some advantages as follows.
1, reduce pain: cold therapy can reduce the speed of sensory and motor nerve conduction, slow the release of histamine, reduce tissue sensitivity to pain, reduce the use of pain medication.
2, reduce bleeding and exudation: cold therapy can be local tissue vasoconstriction, reduce post-injury or post-surgical microcirculation and surrounding tissue exudation and swelling; reduce the role of vascular endothelial cells and thrombus formation; reduce the release of oxygen free radicals and so on.
Second, the timing of cold therapy after joint surgery
1, the acute period after surgery, especially within the first 24 hours after surgery, microcirculatory disorders and the reaction to tissue damage secondary to it is not obvious. It can reduce bleeding, pain and swelling. At this time, it is recommended that the frequency of ice compresses can be increased intermittently.
2, postoperative rehabilitation period in the rehabilitation training such as joint mobility exercises, as well as after a long period of standing, walking, holding, weight bearing, or usually feel the joint or limb swelling, pain, heat obvious, you can local cold therapy in the affected area for 15-20 minutes, when using should pay attention to protect the wound clean and dry.
Third, the contraindications and precautions for cold therapy
1.Patients with combined Raynaud’s disease, paroxysmal chilled hematocrit urine, condensation globulinemia and other circulatory disease disorders.
2, patients of low or high age and other patients who cannot tolerate cold therapy.
In short, for patients with hypertension, cold allergy, fear of cold, circulatory system abnormalities, those with wound sites or psychological disorders, etc., special care should be taken in cold therapy to avoid accidents or tissue damage.
About heat therapy
In contrast to cold therapy, heat therapy is a method of treatment by increasing the temperature of the affected area. There are more ways of heat therapy, the common ones are heat bag, wax therapy, particle therapy, infrared radiation, hydrotherapy, ultrasonic therapy device and so on.
A, the role of heat therapy
Heat therapy has a relaxing and calming effect, in centuries ago, people know how to apply heat to injured tissues to reduce muscle spasm. In physical therapy, heat therapy can not only promote relaxation, but also can be used to increase blood flow, promote tissue healing, and can also be used to prepare stiff joints and tense muscles before exercise.
There is a wide variety of heat therapy modalities that can be used for a variety of conditions, notably superficial heat therapy and divine deep heat therapy. The so-called superficial heat therapy refers to the maximum heat (about 40~45°C) in the range of acceptable clinically safe temperatures, and its thermal impact and effect can only increase the temperature of surface tissues, for example, heat packs, wax therapy, hydrotherapy, etc. all belong to superficial heat therapy; while deep heat therapy refers to the conversion of any form of energy into thermal energy, which can pass through the skin, through the deep tissues and cause them to be absorbed, resulting in an increase in the temperature of deep tissues and molecular activity increases, such as electronic waves, ultrasound, etc.
Second, the application of heat therapy in bone and joint diseases and postoperative rehabilitation
1, heat therapy is often used in osteoarthritic diseases, joint and muscle stiffness and postoperative rehabilitation exercises before, but it should be noted that in the early postoperative period of the joint can not use heat therapy, because it will aggravate the bleeding of the joint cavity.
2, the specific use: conservative treatment of patients can be used in the joint pain, flexion and extension unfavorable heat therapy, depending on the specific time of heat therapy, about 20-30 minutes at a time, should not be too long; joint surgery after the acute edema period (depending on the type of surgery, generally 3-7 days, joint replacement patients may be slightly longer) before the rehabilitation exercise, you can also perform 15-20 minutes of heat therapy, so as to better rehabilitation exercise. In turn, better rehabilitation exercises can be performed.
Third, the contraindications to heat therapy
1, the temperature sensory lack of integrity of the patient does not apply to heat therapy, because of the possibility of burns.
2, the injury of the acute bleeding period contraindicated the use of heat therapy.
3, heat therapy site suffering from malignant tumors are contraindicated the use of heat therapy.