Question - Ice pack directly on skin

I put an ice pack directly on my arm for 20 mins. after doing physiotherapy for the tendonitis in my arm. I now have "freezer burn" marks. Will the marks eventually disappear?

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Question - Ice pack directly on skin

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Jul 10, 2008
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Homemade ice pack or a commercial gel pack?
by: Bart - SII

If you were using a homemade ice pack (using ice, or frozen vegetables) then the redness that you have should go away after 20-30 minutes as the skin heats up. With ice or frozen veggies, their temperature is 32 degrees and as soon as they hit your warm skin, they start to melt or warm up. So, the temperature never falls low enough to cause true frost bite or burning. Commercial ice packs that use chemicals to allow the pack to stay flexible can fall below freezing levels and cause frost burn.

If the redness or "freezer burn" marks do not go away after a few hours, then you might want to get it looked at by your doctor or PT.

If your skin is very sensitive to the cold therapy, try putting a moist towel between your skin and the ice pack - this will alleviate some of the redness and burning.

Hope this helps - comment back with other questions.

Dec 07, 2009
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freezer burn on my breast
by: Anonymous

I had a biopsy on my breast and was instructed to use an ice pack 20minutes on/20 minutes off. I ended up with a reddish blotch on the area. It took a week to fade away.