How To Use Cold Packs Video

Cold packs can often be used to treat injuries in order to reduce swelling and alleviate pain. Learn how to use cold packs properly in this health video.

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Put cold packs on front and back of muscle
Use cold packs before bed
Apply cold packs every 20 to 25 minutes

About this Author

Russ Paine is a well-known physical therapist with the Roger Clemens Institute at Memorial Hospital. After getting his degree in physical therapy from Texas Women's University, he trained for several years under David Drez, MD, a renowned surgeon and sports medicine specialist. He has been a rehab consultant for the Houston Rockets, Houston Astros and NASA. He has given hundreds of presentations in his career in the US and abroad, and has published many chapters in text books and papers in peer review journals.

RUSS PAINE: So what we'd like to do now is talk about the use of cold in treating injuries. Cold packs are used frequently. They have been used forever in the treatment of sports medicine injuries. Basically, what a cold pack does is it helps alleviate pain, and it helps decrease inflammation. In joints where we use a cold pack on very frequently are the shoulder joint, knee and ankle. So let's just look at the application of a cold pack to the shoulder. It's always good to put the cold pack behind the shoulder and in front of the shoulder, so you kind of cover the whole area. Your rotator cuff muscles are in the front and then the back of the shoulder, and the subacromial bursa is on top. So I think probably cold packs work best in the shoulder joint. People who have trouble sleeping at night will respond very well to cold packs at night before you go to bed. That's one of the best things you can do to alleviate pain in your shoulder even almost as good as pain medicine, so cold packs in the shoulder are very, very effective. Typically, ice application is 20 to 25 minutes, and you don't want to reapply the cold. You need a couple of hours in between. And here's the reason you don't want to re-apply because this is one scenario that sometimes happens in a football injury is I put an ice pack behind the knee - a little chilly - and on top of the knee. Okay. So if you have ice application on a knee and you keep ice on there for four or five or six hours at a time with fresh ice, sometimes you can actually damage the peroneal nerve. And the peroneal nerve is a very important nerve that comes very close to the surface. It actually innervates the muscles that bring your foot up and down. You can call it a peroneal nerve palsy, which is a very bad thing. So ice is very effective. We also use ice in the ankle along with compression. And when you're doing ice application, elevation is really important. If you can elevate your knee or ankle, you'll have good success with ice compression and elevation.

How to Use Cold Packs Video

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