Woman’s World, September 29. Ice or heat? I reviewed the piece. Yahoo Health and AOL picked it up the same day.
They were writing for sore muscles. I answer for people I just operated on. Same physiology. Tighter rules.
Ice first. It vasoconstricts.
“The first couple of days after surgery, ice is better, because it vasoconstricts, which decreases swelling and inflammation.”
Not ice, exactly.
“Usually we don’t actually use ice per se. We have little ice packs that have a gel inside, which you put in the freezer. They’re covered with silicone, and this protects the skin so that it doesn’t suffer direct contact with the ice. We like to use it as often as possible, every hour, for the first three days.”
Then heat. It vasodilates.
“After the third day, heat will actually vasodilate and help get more blood flow and oxygen to the area, as well as all the growth factors and repair cells that we need.”
The line I say in every consult.
“The patient should be able to hold the ice pad or heat pad in their hands comfortably. If it’s too hot or too cold to hold comfortably, it can burn the skin. You should be very careful, especially in areas that are numb, so that you don’t injure yourself.”
Numb skin sits under a pack that is burning it and never says a word. Your hand does.
Twenty minutes.
The one line of mine the magazine printed that I will repeat: “Longer than 20 minutes does not help. The skin can be injured, and the body starts pushing blood back into the area to warm it, which undoes the benefit.”
The day-two trap.
“But physically, on day two, day three, you’re gonna feel fine. There’s no pain. It’s just the feeling of swelling. But physically, you feel like you can do anything.”
Feel fine, skip the pack, overdo it, swell. Keep the cadence through day three. Then heat, then massage. Surgery somewhere else and nobody told you? Now someone has. The practice sheet is on swplasticsurgery.com, the version by procedure on agulloplasticsurgery.com.
Why Choose Dr. Agullo
I am certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Surgery, trained in plastic surgery at the Mayo Clinic, and teach as Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. Castle Connolly has listed me as a Top Doctor for thirteen consecutive years, 2014 through 2026.
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