Comparison of Cryotherapy and Thermotherapy on Pain and Functional Mobility in Unilateral Knee Osteoarthritis A Randomize Controlled Trial

Abstract: Among all the pharmacological therapies, the thermotherapy is believed to be a quite advantageous and mostly employed therapy. Typically, Ice is used for acute injuries and warmth is used for sprains and strains. It seems appropriate to use hot and cold packs in osteoarthritis according to targeted problem to be addressed. Objective: To compare the thermotherapy and cryotherapy in treatment of unilateral knee osteoarthritis. Methods: The study design was a randomized controlled trail. Study wa s conduc t ed through pr e -t e st ed questionnaire at Department of Physiotherapy, Nawaz Sharif Social Security Hospital, Lahore. Total 100 patients were taken in study and randomly divided into 2 groups. In Group-A patients were treated with Thermotherapy and in Group-B patients were treated with Cryotherapy. The grades of pain were assessed on VAS and severity of disease was assessed through WOMAC index. Results: In both treatments group 50 patients were enrolled. For pain reduction Group-Apatients who were treated with thermotherapy reported less pain during their th daily physical activities at the end of 4 week. A significant difference was present for pain in both treatment groups. But for Muscle strength and muscle flexibility both the treatment were not completely effective. For few parameters patients who were treated with thermotherapy shows tremendous results and for other parameters cryotherapy shows effective results. Conclusions: Thermotherapy was more effective than Cryotherapy for the management of unilateral knee osteoarthritis. But for few parameters i.e. (Pain, Physical Activity) thermotherapy was effective and for other parameters 08 cryotherapy is effective. Keywords: Cryotherapy, Thermotherapy, Pain, Unilateral Knee