Questions for cutmen (Enswell research)

[ITasteLikePaint]

Long version:
I am a certified athletic trainer (no, not a personal trainer, those are different) and a graduate student doing research on the medical treatments that fighters get between rounds (ice on the back of the neck, adrenalin 1:1000, ect). My current focus has been on seeing if an enswell actually works to minimize swelling. I'm gearing up to start my thesis, continuing this research, and my adviser has told me that I need to verify a few things first. I need to hear the thoughts of any cutmen on the very basics of an enswell. What do you use an enswell for? Why do you use a steel enswell and not something else? Et cetera.
Just to make things clear, this is not my research. I'm not going to quote anybody. I'm not even going to cite this forum as a source. No ethics committee has approved this thread. We're just discussing this as cutmen to someone who wants to know more about cutmen.

Short version:
Pretend that I know nothing about MMA/boxing. Tell me about an enswell and why you use it.

[Cotillion]

it keeps swelling down

[memphis0789]

Originally Posted by Cotillion

it keeps swelling down

im not a cutman but ive been around enough fights i think i can help you out with a couple of your questions. stainless steel is commonly used because once chilled it will hold a low temperature for a long enough period of time to actually have an effect of the temperature of the area it is treating. yes enswells will reduce swelling to some degree ; it wont just make it go away or prevent it entirely but help yes.

the science behind it is basically that the enswell being very lightly applied to the swollen area will lower the temperature of the capillaries that the blood flows through thus lowering the temperature of the blood flowing within ; which in turn decreases the amount of blood able to flow to a certain area to cause swelling.

the simplest way to think about it is cold particles move slower than warm particles of the same type so cold blood takes longer to fill up a given space than warm blood and is quicker to clot since its already moving slower.

i hope that some of this was useful just on a theoretical level and im sure actual cutmen can give you more insight into what they really do versus what i can tell they are doing from the way things must physically interact in theory.

[Philosophy]

PV=NkT

Game, set, match.

Specific heat of water is one of the largest. Stainless acts as a transfer medium.

[ITasteLikePaint]

Originally Posted by Philosophy

Specific heat of water is one of the largest. Stainless acts as a transfer medium.

Why is stainless steel used as a transfer medium?

[xilliun]

My understanding of it is that an Enswell works by absorbing the cold and maintaining a low temperature for an extended amount of time. Sort of like an ice cube that doesn't melt away. When applying it, you don't want to push down and rub out the swelling as such, just to apply the cold metal to the swelling to reduce/stop it.

[ITasteLikePaint]

So it's just its ability to

Originally Posted by xilliun

maintaining a low temperature for an extended amount of time

?

So if there was something that was better at making the face cold would cutmen use that instead?

[some random guy]

Might be worth looking at aluminum (higher heat capacity and thermal conductivity) vs stainless steel.

[ITasteLikePaint]

OOC: I can't wait to tell my thesis chair that some random guy weighed in on the discussion.

[derekm621]

good question. i noticed at ufc 154 after gsp started to swell, he barked at one of his corner men "Don't rub it!" or something along those lines