Evaluation of the effect of cooling strategies on recovery after surgical intervention.

Introduction: Different cooling strategies exist for emergency treatments immediately after sports trauma or after surgery. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of three cooling regimen during the immediate postoperative phase as well as in the rehabilitation phase.

Methods: 36 patients undergoing anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction received either no cooling (control-group, Con, N=12), were cooled with a menthol-containing cooling bandage (Mtl, N=12) or cooled with an ice containing cold pack (CP, N=12).