Effectiveness of Salted Ice Bag Versus Cryocompression on Decreasing Intramuscular and Skin Temperature.

Context: Rest, ice, compression, and elevation are commonly recommended immediately after injury. Traditionally, ice bag (IB) with elastic wrap compression has been utilized; however, recently intermittent cryocompression units are being used. Limited research has evaluated tissue temperature decreases with intermittent cryocompression units.

Objective: Evaluate magnitude of muscle and skin cooling.

Design: Repeated-measures counterbalanced study.

Setting: University research laboratory.

Patients Or Other Participants: Twelve healthy college-aged participants (4 males and 8 females; age = 23.08 [1.93] y; height = 171.66 [9.47] cm; mass = 73.67 [13.46] kg; subcutaneous thickness = 0.90 [0.35] cm) without compromised circulation or injury.

Intervention(s): Salted IB, GameReady (GR), and PowerPlay-ice bag (PP-ice) were applied to the posterior aspect of the nondominant calf for 30 minutes; participants underwent each treatment in counterbalanced order.

Main Outcome Measure(s): Muscle temperature measured via 21-gauge catheter thermocouple; skin temperature measured via a surface thermocouple. Temperatures were recorded at baseline and during a 30-minute treatment. Correlations were evaluated between muscle and skin temperatures.

Results: Nonsignificant treatment × time interaction and nonsignificant main effect of treatment for intramuscular cooling. Mean Decrease From Baseline: IB, 6.4°C (±2.8); GR, 5.4°C (±1.1); PP-ice, 4.8°C (±2.8). Nonsignificant treatment × time interaction for skin cooling (F = 1.440, P = .65, , and observed β = 0.773), but significant main effect for treatment (F = 5.279, P = .03, , and observed β = 1.00). Mean Decrease From Baseline: IB, 17.0°C; GR, 16.4°C; PP-ice, 14.6°C. No significant correlation between intramuscular and skin temperatures in any condition at any time point. No significant correlation between adipose tissue thickness and maximum temperature decrease with any modality.

Conclusions: Salted IB with elastic wrap compression, GR, and PP-ice produced equivalent intramuscular temperature decreases during the treatment period.