How do you reduce knee swelling?

Question

My father is 72 years old and had an accident and fell yesterday.
His knees are extremely swollen and he refuses to go to the hospital in hopes of the swelling doing down.
How can I make the swelling go down? In his state right now he cannot even stand up. Help!

Answer 1

There are many ways to reduce the swelling to the knee area. Depending upon the medications he takes on a regular basis, ibuprofen or any non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug would be great. Elevation of the knee above the level of the heart should also be considered as well as icing the knee with a bag of ice wrapped with a towel or some other fabric. It can be harmful to place the ice in the bag directly on the skin and in some cases can even cause blistering of the skin. Also advise him to rest the knee and not try to walk on it very often. Because of his age, please encourage him to ask for help when getting up since a fall resulting in a broken hip or head injury could be catastrophic for a man of his age. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Go to the hospital. Only with an radiograph/CT can the doctors properly diagnose what is wrong. He can do more damage to himself if he doesn't go immediately. For the time being ice it for 20min/hr and take some ibuprofen if he doesn't have a clotting disorder.

Answer 3

Put ice direcly on it 20 minutes at a time (longer can result in frostbite), make him take advil (ibprophin) or other anti-inflaitory. Remember RICE Rest, Ice, Compression (wrap it), Elevation (raise above heart level.)

Answer 4

Ice packs!!!

**also, an anti-inflammatory like Advil, but at his age, check with a doctor before taking medicines**

Answer 5

Use ice pack and elevate his leg when he lie down or sleeping.

Answer 6

R.I.C.E.

Rest
Ice
Compression
Elevation!

(also an anti-inflamatory like Ibuprophen)

Answer 7

needs doc