The effect of application of hydrocollator pack covered with 2-centimeter thickness cotton towel for 20 minutes on skin temperature in patients receiving physical therapy.

Abstract

          Objective : To investigate skin temperature during treated with hydrocollator pack wrapped with 2 cm-thickness fabric for 20 minutes.

          Method :  The study was performed in 50 musculaskeletal syndrome’ volunteers who has treated at Physicaltherapy Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine Mahidol University. This research was conducted in a room with a controlled temperature in the range of 22 to 25 °C. The hot pack was placed inside a hydrocollator heating units, a thermostatically water bath at 80 °C, for over 30 minutes. After that the hot pack was prepared by wrapping with 100% cotton towel (27 inches X 54 inches) folded in a half to make 2 cm-thickness fabric. Then, place on volunteer’ s lower back . The digital thermometer was placed between the lower back of subject and the towel. The temperature was recorded at each time point from 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 minutes. The thermal perception of each volunteer was interviewed and recorded at each time point. The data was analyzed using SPSS version PASW statistics 18. Mean and standard deviation of temperature were calculated by One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test while temperature perception was analysed usingdescriptive statistics frequencies.

          Results : The temperature of hydrocollator pack wrapped with a 2 cm. thickness fabric used for lower back pain patienst for 20 minutes was in the range of 24.9 ±1.8 °C to 42.7 ±1.4 °C. The temperature during 5 minute to 20 minute was consistantly in the range of 37.9 ± 2.1 °C to 42.7 ± 1.4 °C. The thermal perception of the volunteer at each time interval was showed as : 5^th minutes feel warm 84% feel hot 16%, 10^th minutes  feel warm 54% feel hot 44%  feel extreme hot 2% , 15^th minutes  feel warm 44%   feel hot 52%  feel extreme hot 4% and 20^th minutes feel neutral 2%  feel warm 70%   feel hot 26%  feel extreme hot 2%. All of volunteer had no evidence of side effect as call “burn”

          Finally, we concluded that, the hydrocollator pack incubated at 73°C which wrapped with 2 cm. thickness fabric  could be used for lower back pain treatment effectively within 20 minutes.