Cryo & Heat Therapy

WHAT IS CRYOTHERAPY?

Cold Therapy - also known as Cryotherapy or ice therapy: cold therapy is a very effective and cheap way to quickly treat sports injuries and is an essential component of the PRICE (Protect, Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) treatment of muscle strains and tears.

By applying a cold pack to an injured area, it will cause the blood vessels to constrict (vasoconstriction) which will help to reduce bleeding or swelling. This will help to reduce pain and may help prevent the muscles around the injured area going into spasm.

First aid training advises against applying ice directly to the skin as this may damage the skin and cause a “burn”, therefore it is worth wrapping crushed ice in a towel or even better fill an ice bag with a mixture of crush ice and water. This can then be held in place using a roller wrap or an ice bag wrap.

Ice packs therefore form an essential component of all sports first aid kits, the availability of ice will be a deciding factor whether to use an instant ice pack or Arctic Blast Bandage (which rely on a chemical reactions to cool down) or standard ice bags, Iceband or Aircast Cryo/Cuff.

Ice packs, ice bags, cold sprays, Aircast cryo-therapy coolers and cuffs, and are basically everything the physio needs for cold therapy, compression and reduction of inflammation in sports injury.

Cryotherapy combined with compression is the bedrock of acute sports first aid treatment for soft tissue injuries. This section offers the therapist a range of effective products for pitch-side recovery.

HEAT THERAPY

Hydra Heat packs for heat therapy and hot packs for hydrocollators.