Objective To explore the effect of cold compress on rapid rehabilitation nursing after total knee arthroplasty. Methods A total of 101 patients who were diagnosed and undertook total knee replacement surgery from December 2015 to August 2016 were selected and randomly assigned to observation group (n=53) and control group (n=48). All the subjects were given routine postoperative nursing care. On the basis of that, cold compress was applied in the observation group. The general situation, postoperative incision drainage, postoperative temperature and pain score were analyzed. Results The average incision drainage of the observation group on the first, second and third day was (330.0±120.2), (90.4±48.5) and (40.2±10.5)ml respectively, and the total drainage was (400.2±100.3)ml, which were all lower than those of the control group with statistical differences (P< 0.05). In addition, the postoperative pain scores at the 24th, the 48th and the 72nd hour were (5.02±0.24),(3.45±0.35) and (2.85±0.56) respectively, and the postoperative peak temperature was (37.8±0.8)℃, which were all significantly lower than the control group (P< 0.05). Conclusions The cold compress method can reduce incision drainage, decrease postoperative pain score and peak temperature after total knee arthroplasty, which has a positive effecton patients' recovery.