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Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of structured cryotherapy on edema of patients who had a total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Methods: The subjects were 58 patients who were diagnosed with osteoarthritis and had total knee arthroplasty in D hospital. In total, 29 people were in the leg elevation cryotherapy group (LECTG), 29 people were in the control group (CTG). After TKA, the patients’ swelling on post operation days (POD) 3 were checked. After the post OP checking, LECTG was treated with cryotherapy with leg elevation for 12 days but CTG was cryo therapy with sit on chair. Results: Swelling show significant difference within the group (p<.05), but did not show signigicant difference between groups (p>.05). Conclusions: Base on the results, it was found the cryo therapy of -78°c improved swelling after TKA. Accordingly, it is thought that cryo therapy of -78°c has positive effect on swelling in the process of recovery after operation. but It did not approve that the leg elevation was even more effective. For this study, the reserch developed to enhance the effectiveness of the cryotherapy, would make it possible to apply to an effective cryotherapy posture.