How Many Times Should You Apply a Cold Compress To a Sprained Foot?

After the foot sprain within 24 hours should be cold compress, the purpose of cold compress is to reduce swelling and pain, and the number of cold compresses should generally be combined with the severity of the sprain to consider, for minor sprains the number of cold compresses can be properly reduced, but for some serious sprains should pay attention to the way to deal with, can be combined with whether the foot swelling to determine whether to continue cold compresses, then the foot sprain after the cold compress How many times should I apply cold compresses after a foot sprain?

1, Number of cold compresses
Stop all activities after the foot is broken. Apply a cold compress to the injured area immediately. By applying cold compresses, you can reduce the local soft tissue congestion and reduce the swelling of the foot and ankle. It is best to apply a cold compress for about 20 minutes and repeat every 2 hours or so. Do not apply ice for long periods of time or place ice directly on the skin as this may cause local frostbite. Ice should be applied up to 24 hours after the injury. After 24 hours of injury, the soft tissues will gradually swell and recover. It is then necessary to apply heat to increase local blood circulation to reduce swelling and promote the absorption of inflammation. Some sprains are very serious, the cold compress time is extended to 48 hours.

2,Cold compress method
Ice should be applied for 2 to 3 days after the sprain. Apply ice for about 15-20 minutes each time, with an interval of 1~2 hours between ice packs. Once the pain is less intense, icing should be applied every 2-3 hours. If the injury is very minor, the ice can be applied less frequently or three times a day. The best material for icing is a mixture of ice and water, so that the minimum temperature is 0°C. Using ice directly, which may be lower than 0°C, is not good and may frostbite the soft tissues.

3,Note
If you do not have a special ice pack, you can buy a bottle of chilled water and pour it into a plastic bag as an ice pack; if you do not have a suitable plastic bag, you can pour it directly on top of a towel or handkerchief and apply it directly to the ice after it has cooled. Once the acute phase is over and there is no problem, we can start applying hot compresses, which is the time to activate the blood and remove blood stasis, not to add injury to injury. For the hot compress, the main concern is the temperature and time control, usually the temperature of the hot compress should not exceed 50 ~ 60 ℃, and not more than one hour, so that both effective and safe to promote the recovery of the injury.