Humeral shaft fracture refers to the fracture from 1-2 cm below the humeral surgical neck to 2 cm above the humeral condyle, which is mainly caused by direct, indirect, rotational violence or other factors, requiring effective treatment as soon as possible due to the rich blood vessels near humeral shaft and traumatic reactions, swelling and pain are more obvious once fracture occurs. Postoperative functional rehabilitation is often affected by severe limb pain and swelling, influencing postoperative comfort and surgical satisfaction of patients. How to improve perioperative pain, comfort and quality of life is a clinical issue that orthopedic surgeons are concerned about. Existing studies have shown that cold therapy plays an important role in relieving postoperative pain. Currently, continuous cold therapy, intermittent cold therapy, compression cold therapy, circulation cold therapy and other cold therapy methods have been used in clinical treatment of limb fracture or postoperative detumescence, but there are still differences in the therapeutic effects among different cold therapy methods in different parts.

To investigate the effects of continuous cold therapy and intermittent cold therapy on early postoperative pain and swelling in patients with humeral shaft fractures.

From May 2019 to May 2021, 65 patients with humeral shaft fractures treated in our department were retrospectively analyzed. According to different cold therapy methods, they were divided into continuous cold treatment group (33 cases) and intermittent cold treatment group (32 cases) . The patients in the continuous cold therapy group was treated with ice bag continuous cryotherapy, and the patients in the intermittent cold therapy group was treated with ice bag intermittent cryotherapy. The swelling degree, pain and total drainage volume of the affected limb were compared between the two groups 1 day before operation and on the 1st and 3rd days after operation.

There was no significant difference in the degree of swelling between the two groups 1 day before operation and on the 1st day after operation. On the 2nd day and 3rd day after operation, the swelling regression in the continuous cold treatment group was significantly better than that in the intermittent cold treatment group (P <0.05) ; There was no significant difference in the degree of pain between the two groups1 day before operation and on the 1st day after operation. The pain relief in the continuous cold therapy group on the 3rd day after operation was significantly better than that of the intermittent cold therapy group (P <0.05) . The total amount of postoperative wound drainage in the continuous cold therapy group was less than that in intermittent cold therapy group (P <0.05) .

Compared with intermittent cold therapy, continuous cold therapy can better alleviate the postoperative pain and swelling of patients with humeral shaft fractures and reduce the amount of bleeding. It is worthy of clinical application.