Martha Ewas, a pre-assessment nurse at Nuffield Health in London, rented ProMOTION EV1 to support with a combined ACL BTB graft revision, lateral external tenodesis and lateral root repair recovery, following a football injury in 2013 and failed ACL reconstruction in 2016.
Martha had previously used a well-known large area cold compression ice machine to support her recovery from a medial meniscectomy, osteophyte removal, plicectomy and given her nursing background was aware of the benefits of cryotherapy. She came across ProMOTION EV1 on Google and was attracted by the targeted nature of the device, so decided to rent an EV1 rather than the other products she had used previously and was really pleased with the results.
Cryotherapy & Compression
“I regained full leg extension within three weeks, versus the month from my earlier surgery.
“Following my last surgery, I really struggled with quad activation and worked heavily on that for eight months with Isokinetic to reduce the medial load. This time round my quad activation returned within 2 weeks, even with a knee brace on.”
Martha adds: “I found reducing swelling in a targeted way supported the effect of my exercises.
For example, doing x10 reps 3 sets of pulse quad contractions meant I could do this between using ProMOTION EV1 in that area, giving more control of the muscle and more neuromuscular connection, which relates to the quality of the movement.
“When I used Game ReadyⓇ most of the upper leg, knee and lower thigh were submerged in cold, which successfully brought swelling down, however there was no way I could perform exercises after or before.
“The setting up also meant greater risk of injury since I lived alone and had to move to get more ice with a leg that was already “frozen”. I didn’t enjoy that much!”
The guidelines for injury management have introduced ‘optimal loading’ as a solution to encourage early activity to optimise recovery. 1 Emerging research suggests a targeted cryotherapy approach may help to minimise the reduction to muscle strength previously reported with ice interventions, which cooled a relatively larger surface area. 5 This would allow individuals to apply a targeted cryotherapy intervention, using the ProMOTION EV1, and then return to weight bearing activity earlier, at a lower risk of injury.
With ProMOTION EV1 offering heat and contrast therapy, in addition to cryotherapy and compression, Martha was also able to use the heat and contrast therapy functions to support different stages of her recovery. This range of applications in addition to the highly portable nature of the device are a unique proposition to the market.
Heat
Martha used the heat application on the surrounding muscles, especially the hamstrings, to help her perform exercises to increase her range of movement. She comments: “Having had a hamstring graft in 2016 I found this particularly useful to help regain full 90-degree flexion less than a month after surgery.”
Contrast
Six weeks post-op, with her leg brace removed, Martha started using contrast therapy to amazing effect. After her first walk into town swelling had returned to the area, however after applying ProMOTION EV1 she reported the swelling visibly went down!
She comments: “The cold was immediately soothing to the area and I could “feel” the inflammation go down. Less hot and less stiff even though the fluid hadn’t gone anywhere. “After the heat came on, I could feel my capillaries open up and blood flow rushing to the area. It was a pretty cool sensation. Immediately after a 20-minute round of this alternation, my range of motion immediately improved to beyond 90 degree flexion.
“I wasn’t able to do that all day and I had reduced flexion to 60 degrees after walking in town, so I was super pleased with that. “The immediate release of “fresh blood flow” after the cold application to the area really works. The results are fast and almost immediate! It’s clear that with repeated use, the effects are glorious!”
Read more about the science behind ProMOTION EV1 and its targeted nature.
Device rental for pre-and post-op patients starts at just £275+vat for 28 days.
