Thermal Therapies in the Treatment of Muscle Injuries

Plain-language summary

Muscle strain injuries represent one of the most prevalent injuries in athletes. Despite this high injury prevalence, there is no evidence to support some of the currently used therapeutic strategies. Amongst them, thermal therapies and especially cryotherapy modalities (Ice, Cold water immersion, perfused garments) have been extensively used on soft tissue injuries to reduce pain perception and decrease inflammation. However, recent findings in humans and in animals have reported conflictual results on the effects of cold on muscle regeneration. On the other hand, recent studies in humans suggest that passive heat exposure can impact positively muscle protein synthesis, mitochondrial content and muscle torque in injured, immobilized and healthy participants. Furthermore, preliminary results from our group have shown a faster removal of muscle damages from the muscle and suggest a better muscle regeneration after a localized heat exposure. As such, our preliminary results confirmed that local heating may represent a promising tool to accelerate muscle regeneration. This randomized controlled trial will investigate the therapeutic effect of two thermal interventions (Hot or cold-water immersion) in the management of acute lower limbs muscle injuries. 135 patients will be distributed in a counterbalanced way into 3 groups: Hot, Cold and Control. All the groups will receive the same physiotherapy treatment. The thermal intervention will consist in 10 sessions of either, 60-minute hot water bath (42°C) for the hot group or, 15-minute Cold water bath (12°C) for the cold group realized after the 10 first physiotherapy session. All thermal interventions will be performed after the testing and physiotherapy treatment.

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