Wetted Ice Bags: Does the Temperature of the Water Added to the Ice Bag Really Matter?

• Main Author: Shaner, Kelly Ann
• Format: Others
• Published: North Dakota State University 2018
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10365/27683

Currently, no consensus exists on how many degrees to decrease tissue temperature for a beneficial cryotherapy treatment, 1, 2 so it is accepted that colder tissue temperatures achieve more beneficial treatments. 3 There is evidence supporting the superiority of wetted ice bags over non-wetted ice bags for decreasing tissue temperature. Wetted ice bags can be further altered through changing the water temperature inside the bag. Thus, the water inside the bag would cause a phase change inside the modality; in turn, more heat transferred from the body to the modality, resulting in cooler skin temperatures. The purpose of this study was to determine the skin temperature differences between two wetted ice bags with 5°C and 15°C water. The 5°C wetted ice bag decreased skin temperature slightly greater than the 15°C wetted ice bag, indicating that temperature of water inside an ice bag played a role in the decrease of skin temperature.