Cryotherapy for Muscle Weakness Following Joint Injury

Study Title: Cryotherapy to Treat Persistent Muscle Weakness After Joint Injury
Authors: C. Kuenze & J.M. Hart
Journal: The Physician and Sportsmedicine
Date: October, 2010

Summary:

• This paper reviewed the potential beneficial effect of cryotherapy on a common clinical entity beyond that of pain or inflammation...muscle weakness. While muscle weakness following joint injury may be a product of a multitude of factors upstream of simple reflex inibition mechanisms, "arthrogenic muscle inhibition" caused by structural damage and / or effusion may nonetheless persist throughout post-injury rehabilitation and recover. Of particular concern is the potential for high-threshold or compensatory muscle activity when specific muscles being exercised are unable to fully activate. The authors of this paper reviewed several studies looking at the approach of cryotherapy on AMI. From the limited existing literature available, it was revealed that pre-rehabilitative cryotherapy may have a transient, disinhibitory efect on muscle recruitment ability. That while the mechanism of such intervention has still yet to be ascertained with certainty, the application of 20-30 minutes of "cryotherapy prior to therapeutic exercise (may) provide a method for clinicians to open the motoneuron pool prior to exercise to maximize effectiveness."

Kuenze, C. & Hart, J.M. (2010). Cryotherapy to treat muscle weakness after joint injury. The Physician and Sportsmedicine, 3 (38), 38-42.