Cold therapy after surgery 

Swelling is an inevitable result of surgery. Surgery is essentially an injury. Blood and fluids flow into the injured area and collect there. This damages the tissues and causes pressure and pain. Cold therapy constricts the blood vessels, slowing the flow of the fluids to the area.

Uncontrolled pain is more than an unpleasant experience. Pain maintenance is associated with better outcomes and fewer complications after surgery. Effective pain maintenance stays ahead of the pain. If you delay treating the pain until you are already in pain it is much more difficult to get it under control.

After surgery your doctor will normally give you pain medication and you should take it as directed. Cold therapy can reduce your need for pain killing drugs and help relieve the pain when the drugs are not enough.

Cold therapy reduces the inflammation and swelling and also acts as a local anesthesia. It minimizes the nerve impulses reducing the pain signals that are sent to the brain and preventing muscle spasms.

The application of ice stimulates the release of endorphins. Endorphins speed healing and help your body fight off infection.

Orthopedic surgery is surgery on your muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones, or joints. Knee surgery, hip replacement, and many common surgeries fall under orthopedic surgery. One thing that all of these surgeries have in common is the need for physical therapy during recovery. You have to get moving to get well, and the sooner you can do it the better.

Cold therapy can enable you to get moving sooner, and to do it without hurting yourself. Ice wraps can be worn before, during, and after exercise to prevent inflammation. Cold therapy reduces your pain, so you can tolerate the movement, but it does not blunt the pain in the way that medications can. Pain is an important warning that you are injuring yourself. With cold therapy those warning signals still get through.

RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation) has long been used to treat acute and chronic injury and assist in rehabilitation following orthopedic surgery. Cold Compression units that SRS provides to patients combines the two most difficult-to-manage aspects of the RICE regimen (Ice and Compression) by offering adjustable cold and intermittent compression in one easy-to-use system.

The anatomically designed wraps are engineered for all major body parts, and utilize intermittent pneumatic compression and fluid circulation technology, simultaneously delivering circumferential cold and compression to most major joints.