Wetted Ice With Elastic Wrap Decreases Intramuscular Temperature More Quickly Than Game Ready®

Abstract

Cryotherapy is a popular treatment chosen by health care providers to treat musculoskeletal injuries. The purpose of this study was to determine which cryotherapy method, Game Ready® or a wetted ice bag with elastic wrap, caused a greater and faster decline in tissue temperature during a 30-min treatment. At 2 cm below adipose, intramuscular tissue temperatures decreased more and faster with the wetted ice treatment compared with the Game Ready® treatment at all three time points: 10 min, 20 min, and 30 min. Furthermore, wetted ice significantly decreased temperature more than Game Ready® at 20 min (peak change [Ca]GR = 3.40 °C, [Ca]WI = 6.14 °C, p = .03) and 30 min ([Ca]GR = 5.62 °C, [Ca]WI = 8.67 °C, p = .02). One of the primary goals after injury is to lower tissue temperature to decrease cellular metabolism to reduce the risk of secondary ischemic injury. No evidence exists to support the optimal tissue temperature decrease for specific physiological results with cryotherapy. However, the literature is consistent with modalities producing colder temperatures are considered a better immediate care modality to decrease cell metabolism as much as possible. Therefore, these findings suggest wetted ice with an ACE wrap would be the more effective treatment in the immediate care phase.