Your knees do an awful lot for your body. Between helping bear the load of the rest of your body, helping move you in any direction, and acting as a hinge for a lot of movement you perform without even thinking twice, your knees have a good chance of getting hurt at some time or another. If you are one of our patients with chronic knee pain, you may fully understand how much your knees do since you are likely to feel pain with many of these simple tasks. Republic Pain Specialists have a number of ways to treat chronic knee pain, including cryotherapy.

How it Works

Doctors, medical professionals, and athletic trainers have known for decades that ice can help athletes and other patients who are suffering from injury. By icing down a specific joint or submerging in an ice bath, many feel less inflammation and relief from pain. Cryotherapy is a very concentrated version of the same concept, either targeting a specific area or, through the use of full chambers, offering pain relief for the whole body. The temperatures used in cryotherapy are usually extremely cold, between negative 200 and 300 degrees, but patients will only stay in that temperature zone for a matter of minutes, according to healthline.com. At Republic, we target knee pain and focus our attention on this area specifically. Not only does the cold reduce inflammation, but it can also numb the nerves where chronic pain has been occurring.

Benefits

Like many of our treatment options, one of the best benefits of using cryotherapy is pain relief without ongoing issues or the risk of addiction when using opioids. An additional benefit is the increase in blood circulation many feel to the area which can provide relief. There is no preparation needed other than maybe wearing comfortable clothing to make it easier to access the knee. This treatment often leads to a full range of motion and the opportunity to return to normal activities. You can also get this treatment regularly and many athletes do participate in different forms of cryotherapy as part of their overall wellness routines.

Side Effects

The extreme cold can be difficult for some patients to get used to, although many feel it is worth it in comparison to the chronic knee pain they have been living with. Very rarely some numbness will linger and even rarer, nerve damage could occur. Certain medical conditions, like diabetes, may not be compatible with cryotherapy due to difficulty being aware of tissue damage. Any patient that is pregnant or could be pregnant will need to discuss concerns with our medical team ahead of time. While some patients do feel lasting relief, others choose to have cryotherapy on a regular basis to stay ahead of their pain.

To learn more about cryotherapy or to see what other pain services we offer, contact us today. We know you want to reduce the amount of pain your body is feeling and we have options to help, without adverse side effects that come with filling a prescription.