Changes of lower-leg blood flow and skin temperature in response to cold application in middle aged to elderly men

Abstract

Ice, compression, and elevation are the basic principles of acute soft tissue injuries management. Few clinicians, however, can give specific evidence based guidance on the appropriate recommendation especially for the elderly because no literatures regarding local vascular response and skin temperature during cold application have been reported. The objective of this study was to examine leg arterial blood flow and skin temperature in response to cold application in middle aged to elderly men (OLD group) compared to young men (YOUNG group. Two hundred and fifty healthy men participated as subjects ranging in age for the YOUNG group from 18-35 years (24.7 +- 4.4 years) and 42-85 years (61.6 +- 8.5 years) for the OLD group. An ice pack was wrapped in a wet towel before applied to the left ankle overlying the medial malleolus for 20 minutes. Leg arterial blood flow using venous occlusion strain gauge plethysmography and skin temperature using tele-thermometer were recorded in every minute of cold application. The result showed that the skin temperatures were continuously decreased during cold application in both groups. There was a significant difference in skin temperature between YOUNG group (15.2 +- 2.7 ํC) and OLD group (16.4 +- 2.6 ํC) at the end of cold application (p< 0.001). The YOUNG group demonstrated a greater drop in skin temperature than the OLD group group (17.5 +- 2.3ํC vs 15.7 +- 2.3 ํC). However, a significant difference in blood flow reduction from baseline was not observed between YOUNG and OLD group. In conclusion, the reduction in skin temperature did not coincide with the decrement in leg blood flow for both young and middle aged to elderly men when cryotherapy was applied for a period of up to 20 minutes.