Abstract
Cryotherapy as well as heattherapy has been long applied clinically. However, either cryo- or heattherapy has been taken up only empirically. In order to revaluate the effects of cryotherapy and heattherapy, we carried out cryomassage at the knee-joints suffering from rheumatoid arthritis in sixteen cases, comparing with other cryotherapies and heattherapies.
The results were reported as follows.
1. Analgesic effect, anti-spastic effect, improvement of stiffness, improvement of muscle strength, and improvement of walking time were best by cryomassage in heattherapies and cryotherapies.
2. The reactive hyperaemia was most remarkable in the cryomassage, and 55 minutes after cryomassage the skin temperature showed higher values than those by the hot pack, and lasted for 4 hours.
3. Compared with heattherapy, our cryomassage is easy to apply. It can be applied in short time, has an immediate effect, keeps the effect long time, thus it is considered to be a very excellent physical therapy.
