Effects of local heat and cold treatment on surface and articular temperature of arthritic knees
Two articles on PainSci cite Oosterveld 1994: 1. The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome 2. Icing, Heating & Tissue Temperature
PainSci commentary on Oosterveld 1994: ?This page is one of thousands in the PainScience.com bibliography. It is not a general article: it is focused on a single scientific paper, and it may provide only just enough context for the summary to make sense. Links to other papers and more general information are provided wherever possible.
One of two similar experiments (Oosterveld 1992 and Oosterveld 1994) testing heating and cooling methods on knees, with or without arthritis. This test measured the effect of ice chips, ligno-paraffin (hot wax), nitrogen-cold air, and placebo short wave diathermy on 39 arthritic knees.
All methods changed the temperature inside healthy knees, by as much as several degrees. Cooling had a greater impact than heating, with temperatures inside the joint dropping as much as 6.4˚C with ice chips (similar but different from the 1992 experiment). Hot wax increased intrarticular temperature by 1.7˚C in this experiment (compared to 3.5˚C in the 1992 test).
original abstract †Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate and compare the effects of locally applied heat and cold treatments on skin and intraarticular temperature in patients with arthritis.
METHODS: Thirty-nine patients with arthritis of the knee were divided at random into 4 treatment groups (ice chips, nitrogen cold air, ligno-paraffin, and placebo short wave). A temperature probe was inserted into the knee joint cavity and another placed on the overlying skin, and changes in temperature over 3 hours were recorded for each treatment group.
RESULTS: The mean temperature of the surface of the skin dropped from 32.2 degrees C to 16.0 degrees C after application of ice chips and from 32.6 degrees C to 9.8 degrees C after application of nitrogen cold air; the mean intraarticular temperature decreased from 35.5 degrees C to 29.1 degrees C and from 35.8 degrees C to 32.5 degrees C, respectively, after these treatments. Treatment with ligno-paraffin increased the surface temperature by 7.5 degrees C and the temperature in the joint cavity by 1.7 degrees C. No significant changes were observed with placebo short wave diathermy.
CONCLUSION: The traditional model, that intraarticular temperature is decreased by superficial heat and increased by superficial cold, must be discarded. In arthritis patients, intraarticular temperature is increased by superficial heat and decreased by superficial cold. This has clear consequences for treatment policy.
related content
- “The effect of local heat and cold therapy on the intraarticular and skin surface temperature of the knee,” F G Oosterveld, J J Rasker, J W Jacobs, and H J Overmars, Arthritis and Rheumatism, 1992.
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
- No long-term effects after a three-week open-label placebo treatment for chronic low back pain: a three-year follow-up of a randomized controlled trial. Kleine-Borgmann 2022 Pain.
- Exercise and education versus saline injections for knee osteoarthritis: a randomised controlled equivalence trial. Bandak 2022 Ann Rheum Dis.
- Association of Lumbar MRI Findings with Current and Future Back Pain in a Population-based Cohort Study. Kasch 2022 Spine (Phila Pa 1976).
- A double-blinded randomised controlled study of the value of sequential intravenous and oral magnesium therapy in patients with chronic low back pain with a neuropathic component. Yousef 2013 Anaesthesia.
- Is Neck Posture Subgroup in Late Adolescence a Risk Factor for Persistent Neck Pain in Young Adults? A Prospective Study. Richards 2021 Phys Ther.