OBJECTIVE: The aim of this review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the effect of heat and cold therapy on the treatment of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). METHODS: We followed our protocol that was registered in PROSPERO with ID CRD42020170632. A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCT) was conducted. Nine databases were searched up to December 2020. Data was extracted from the retained studies and underwent methodological quality assessment and meta-analysis. RESULTS: A total of 32 RCTs involving 1098 patients were included. Meta-analysis showed that, the application of cold therapy within 1 h after exercise could reduce the pain of DOMS patients within 24 h (<= 24 h) after exercise (SMD -0.57,95%CI -0.89 to -0.25, p = 0.0005) and had no obvious effect within more than 24 h (> 24 h) (p = 0.05). In cold therapies, cold water immersion (SMD -0.48, 95%CI -0.84 to -0.13, p = 0.008) and other cold therapies (SMD -0.68, 95%CI -1.28 to -0.08, p = 0.03) had the significant effects within 24 h. Heat treatment could reduce the pain of patients. It had obvious effects on the pain within 24 h (SMD -1.17, 95%CI -2.62 to -0.09, p = 0.03) and over 24 h (SMD -0.82, 95%CI -1.38 to -0.26, p = 0.004). Hot pack effect was the most obvious, which reduced the pain within 24 h (SMD -2.31, 95%CI -4.33 to -0.29, p = 0.03) and over 24 h (SMD -1.78, 95%CI -2.97 to -0.59, p = 0.003). Other thermal therapies were not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Both cold and heat showed effect in reducing pain of patients, however there was no significant difference between cold and heat group (p = 0.16). CONCLUSIONS: The current evidence indicated that the application of cold and heat therapy within 1 h after exercise could effectively reduce the pain degree of DOMS patients for 24 h cold water immersion and hot pack therapy, which had the best effect, could promote the recovery of DOMS patients. But more high-quality studies are needed to confirm whether cold or heat therapy work better.

Full text (sometimes free) may be available at these link(s):      help

• DOI
• PubMed
• PDF locator
• publisher