Cryotherapy following total knee replacement

RETRACTED: Effects of application of the clinical nursing pathway on surgical site wound infection and postoperative complication rates in patients with total knee arthroplasty: A meta‐analysis

“…However, as it is an invasive treatment, the adverse factors affecting recovery after TKA should not be ignored. Due to the occurrence of postoperative complications, 6 pain 7 and prolonged postoperative rehabilitation exercise, 8 patients may experience partial or total loss of self‐care ability during the rehabilitation process, which increases their frustration, which affects the surgical efficacy and patient satisfaction. Therefore, postoperative nursing interventions are critical for improving the patient prognosis.…”

Effects of 6 weeks of cryotherapy plus compression therapy after total or unicompartmental knee arthroplasty: protocol for a single-centre, single-blind randomised controlled trial

“…8 9 The recent Cochrane review concluded that there is lowcertainty evidence for a beneficial effect of cryotherapy on blood loss, pain, range of motion and swelling in the short-term, but not on the longer-term. 11 Studies so far have only had an intervention period using cryotherapy (±compression therapy) for a week. This relative short duration could explain the beneficial effects only being demonstrated in the short-term.…”

“…The added value of compression was confirmed by a recently updated Cochrane review that showed a trend favouring the combination of cold and compression over cryotherapy alone. 11 A systematic review by Wyatt et al , (2022), who included six recent RCTs between 2017 and 2022 showed not only decreased perceived pain but also a reduction in opioid consumption in the cryotherapy group within the first post-TKA week. 8 Thijs et al (2018) demonstrated in their RCT that the use of cold therapy (computer-assisted device set on 12 degrees) during the first postoperative week resulted in 2.6 less opioid use as a rescue medication compared with the control group (device set on 21 degrees) 12 ; in the RCT of Brouwers et al a significant reduction of opioid escape medication use was found in the cryotherapy group compared with the usual care group (21% vs 40%).…”

“… 8 9 The recent Cochrane review concluded that there is low-certainty evidence for a beneficial effect of cryotherapy on blood loss, pain, range of motion and swelling in the short-term, but not on the longer-term. 11 …”