Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jun 16, 2021; 9(17): 4116-4122
Published online Jun 16, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i17.4116
Is it time to put traditional cold therapy in rehabilitation of soft-tissue injuries out to pasture?
Zi-Ru Wang, Guo-Xin Ni
Zi-Ru Wang, Guo-Xin Ni, School of Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, Beijing Sport University, Beijing 100084, China
Author contributions: Wang ZR and Ni GX contributed equally to this work; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interests in this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Guo-Xin Ni, MD, PhD, Chief Doctor, Dean, Professor, School of Sport Medicine and Rehabilitation, Beijing Sport University, No. 48 Xinxi Road, Beijing 100084, China. guoxinni@fjmu.edu.cn
Received: January 25, 2021
Peer-review started: January 25, 2021
First decision: March 25, 2021
Revised: April 4, 2021
Accepted: May 7, 2021
Article in press: May 7, 2021
Published online: June 16, 2021
Processing time: 121 Days and 3 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Traditional cold therapy (e.g., topically icing the injured area) may not be helpful but rather act as a barrier to recovery process. A prolonged period of cold on the skin was reported to lead to a reduction of the blood flow, resulting in tissue death or even permanent nerve damage. Hyperbaric gaseous cryotherapy, also known as neurocryostimulation, has shown the ability to induce greater analgesic, anti-inflammatory, vasomotor, and muscle relaxing effects than other traditional cold application, thus quickening recovery and heal following soft tissue injuries. More high quality level evidence is still needed to confirm the efficacy of hyperbaric gaseous cryotherapy about its clinical effects for soft-tissue injuries in the future, in order to find the optimal way to use it.