Ice packs are typically recommended immediately following acute back strain. In contrast, conventional teaching warns that heat may aggravate a new strain, and should be reserved for longer-term injuries. However, little research supports this recommendation. To find out more, researchers looked at 60 patients who visited a hospital emergency room with acute minor back or neck strain. Most of these cases were of back pain.

According to the report, “all patients received 400 mg of ibuprofen orally and then were randomized to 30 minutes of heating pad or cold pack applied to the strained area.” Immediately following the treatment, patients were asked to rate their improvement. Both groups reported “mild yet similar improvement in the pain severity.” And, “there were no between-group differences in the desire for and administration of additional analgesia.”

The study authors point out that these results only reflect immediate benefit, they did not follow-up after the initial treatment.

Academic Emergency Medicine – May 2010;17:484-89.
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