This treatment is a combination of compression and cold therapy which has been clinically proven to be more effective than ice therapy alone. The cold pads act to alleviate pain and helps to reduce swelling by restricting blood flow to the area. The compression also reduces swelling and allows the therapeutic cold to penetrate deeper and last longer. Common injuries for this treatment would be acute injury, osteoarthritis, and post-surgery.
Cold compress therapy is evidenced to be superior to alternative treatment modalities for improving clinical outcomes after knee replacement surgery (Block, 2010).