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Comparison of the use of evaporative coolants and ice packs for the management of preoperative edema and pain in ankle fractures: a prospective randomized controlled trial

  • Trauma Surgery
  • Published:
Archives of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Introduction

The use of evaporative coolants in the management of acute musculoskeletal injury has received increasing attention recently. However, its efficacy compared with conventional cryotherapy in treating injured human subjects remains unclear. The purpose of this study is to compare the efficacy of evaporative coolants with that of ice packs in preoperative management of edema and pain in patients with an ankle fracture.

Material and methods

Sixty-three patients in need of surgical treatment for ankle fracture were randomly assigned to either an evaporative coolant group or an ice pack group. Both treatments were applied for 5 days after injury and outcomes were measured daily. The primary outcome was a reduction in edema as measured by the figure-of-eight-20 method and the secondary outcome was measured by visual analog scale (VAS) for pain.

Results

Two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures showed no significant group effect and no significant group-by-time interaction in terms of reduction of edema and VAS score for pain between two groups. No adverse effects were reported in either group.

Conclusion

Evaporative coolants exhibited comparable efficacy to ice packs in preoperative cryotherapy of ankle fractures without adverse effects. While evaporative coolants are more expensive than ice packs, they can present a viable option for cryotherapy.

Level of evidence

Level I, prospective randomized study.

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Funding

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Korea University Guro Hospital, 148 Gurodong-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul, 08308, South Korea

    Young Hwan Park, Jong Hyub Song, Tae Jin Kim, Seong Hyun Kang, An Seong Chang & Hak Jun Kim

Authors
  1. Young Hwan Park
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  2. Jong Hyub Song
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  3. Tae Jin Kim
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  4. Seong Hyun Kang
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  5. An Seong Chang
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  6. Hak Jun Kim
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Contributions

YHP: lead investigator and first author, writing manuscript. JHS: performing study intervention and data analysis. TJK: outcome assessment and manuscript review. SHK: outcome assessment and data analysis. ASC: outcome assessment and data analysis. HJK: corresponding author and study coordinator, manuscript review.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hak Jun Kim.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. No benefits in any form have been received or will be received from a commercial party related directly or indirectly to the contents of this study.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the institutional review board of the authors' institutions. All procedures performed involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Park, Y.H., Song, J.H., Kim, T.J. et al. Comparison of the use of evaporative coolants and ice packs for the management of preoperative edema and pain in ankle fractures: a prospective randomized controlled trial. Arch Orthop Trauma Surg 139, 1399–1405 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00402-019-03222-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00402-019-03222-7

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