Patrick DenardDirector Oregon Shoulder Fellowship, Oregon Shoulder Institute · Director Oregon Shoulder Fellowship at Oregon Shoulder Institute

Looking to Avoid Opioids After Surgery? Don't Forget About ICE!

28 Aug 2025 · 1 min

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0:40

In this brief video, the speaker emphasizes that incorporating ice‑based cryotherapy, specifically cryocompression (ice plus compression), is a crucial strategy for minimizing opioid use after shoulder and other orthopedic surgeries. He cites a randomized controlled trial providing level‑1 evidence that cryocompression significantly reduces postoperative pain and lowers the amount of opioids patients need. The speaker outlines why avoiding opioids is vital—addiction risk, bowel dysfunction, and delayed recovery—and strongly advocates for the routine use of cryotherapy with compression as part of postoperative pain control, regardless of whether insurance covers it.

Chapters

If you want to avoid opioids after shoulder surgery, any orthopedic surgery for that matter, don't forget that ice is really important. Randomized controlled trial made level 1 evidence shows that cryocompression, that is ice with the addition of compression, reduces pain after surgery and lowers the amount of opioid use. And opioid avoidance or narcotic avoidance is really important because they're addictive, they slow down your bowels, and they can really slow your recovery. So I'm a big advocate, despite whether or not insurance approves, that people look at adding cryotherapy, specifically compression, to their pain control after any shoulder surgery.