Iranian Journal of Rehabilitation Research in Nursing

Introduction: Local cooling as an effective, simple and immediate method is often frequently used to treat minor acute musculoskeletal injuries and pain relief. Although existing some controversy, numerous studies suggest that cooling methods cause a decrease in joint position sense, which may lead to a higher risk of injury. The aim of present study was to compare the immediate and long-time effect of two different types of local cooling on knee joint position sense.
Method: This study was quasi experimental and interventional research. 15 able-bodied males ranged between 23-26 years old were selected by accessible sampling method. The knee joint position sense was measured by an electrogoniometer immediately and after 20 minutes of cooling by crushed ice bag and cold spray through 30 degrees' flexion reconstruction. Data was analyzed employing ANOVA with repeated measures using SPSS v23 software.
Results: The absolute error of 30° knee flexion angle reconstruction, immediately after types of cooling was significantly higher than before cooling protocol (P=0.001). The absolute error of reconstruction in both spray and longtime ice-bag application were significantly higher than before cooling protocol (P<0.05).
Conclusion: Results of this study demonstrate the negative effects of two different local cooling methods on knee joint position sense.  It seems that the loss of Knee proprioception can lead to mechanical instability and ultimately increase risk of joint damage.