Which is better for the knee joint, hot compress or cold compress

Joint pain and swelling all need to be resolved through external force. In order to relieve joint diseases, many people will use hot compresses to improve the condition, but hot compresses will accelerate blood circulation and cause increased pain, so most people will choose cold compresses. Whether it is cold compresses or hot compresses, local blood circulation should be accelerated. The method chosen depends on the recovery period of the disease.

Cold compress and hot compress have completely different mechanisms of action:

Cold compress can cause vasoconstriction and slow blood flow to muscles. Long-term cold compress can cause muscle cramps, but it can stop bleeding, eliminate synovial inflammation, and promote the recovery and reconstruction of collagen tissue in cartilage and tendons. On the contrary, hot compress will cause vasodilation and congestion of muscle synovial tissue. Although it can relieve muscle spasms, it will aggravate inflammation and bleeding, especially during the acute inflammatory phase of arthritis. Hot compress will aggravate the condition.

Everyone knows that after falling and getting injured, using hot compresses or rubbing or kneading with hot wine will aggravate the injury or even cause bleeding. But if it is osteoarthritis, which has recurred for many years and acute severe knee pain occurs after catching a cold, people think that hot compress can be applied at this time, but the swelling becomes worse after hot compress. At this time, you need to see an orthopedic doctor, and sometimes a joint puncture is required. The joint fluid out of the puncture may be bloody. It can be seen that no matter what the cause of acute joint injury, the synovial membrane is congested and very fragile. It will break when exposed to heat, causing continuous bleeding.

It can be seen from this that in the vast majority of acute injuries and at least half of chronic strain cases, cold compresses are not wrong, otherwise it may be very bad. Only half of chronic joint pain cases can be treated with heat.

During the acute stage of knee osteoarthritis in middle-aged and elderly people, that is, when the joints are more swollen than usual and accompanied by severe pain, patients should be cautious when taking care of themselves. If it is not possible to clearly apply cold or hot compresses, it is best to do nothing, just rest and seek medical treatment in time.