Adie S, Kwan A, Naylor JM, Harris IA, Mittal R.  Cyrotherapy following total knee rcplacement.  Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2012 Sep 12;9:CD007911
Bottom Line:  In regard to postoperative pain following total knee replacement,this Cochrane Systematic Review  had 11 randomized controlled trials  and one controlled trial with  a  total of 809 participants which met its inclusive criteria.  The author found that potential benefits of cryotherapy  on blood loss, postoperative pain and range of motion was too small to justify its use and the quality of evidence was low or very low for all main outcomes. Additionally another Cochrane Systemic Review,  Bala, MM, Riemsma, RP, Woff, R,  Kleijnen  J.  Cryotherapy for liver metastases. Cochrane Database for Syst. Rev. 2013 June 5;6 , stated there is  insufficient evidence that cyotherapy benefited patients with liver metastases from various primary sites in terms of survival or recurrence compared with conventional surgery.

The databases searched were PubMed, CINAHL and Joanna Briggs.   My search stratedy was the following: (ice packs OR cyrotherapy)  AND postoperative pain limited from 2000-present and human and English language.

Eight randomized controlled trials  results saw benefits from cold therapy relieving postoperative pain from different parts of the body.    Lastly another randomized controlled trial, Modabber A, Rana M, Ghassemi A,  Gerressen M,  Gellrich NC, Holzle  F, Rana M.  Three-dimensional evaluation of postoperative swelling in treatment of zygomatic bone fractures using two different cooling therapy methods:  a randomized observer-blind prospective study.  Trials. 2013 Jul 29;14:238,  found that hilotherapy was a more efficient cooling method than conventional cooling in relieving postoperative pain and swelling.

Reviewed by John Nemeth 4/14