Objective To investigate the clinical effect of active ankle pump exercise for preventing postoperative limb swelling and pain after cardiac radiofrequency ablation. Methods A total of 99 patients undergoing radiofrequency ablation were divided into two groups according to the admission time, and inpatients were divided into control group (n=50) from June to July in 2022, and intervention group (n=49) from August to September in 2022. The control group received routine nursing, and the observation group received active ankle pump exercise nursing intervention. A special ankle pump exercise supervision group was set up to guide patients to perform active ankle pump exercise at 2 h, 4 h, 6 h, 12 h, 18 h and 24 h after operation, patients need to complete two groups of movements of ankle extension and rotation and in turn. Each group repeated for 3 to 5 times for a total duration of about 10 min, and the legs are conducted alternately.The incidence of postoperative limb swelling,limb muscle pain score,abnormal limb temperature and low back pain were compared between the two groups. Results The incidence of posto-perative limb swelling and the score of postoperative limb muscle pain in the intervention group were significantly lower than those in the control group at 12 hours after operation,and the difference was statistically significant (all P<0.05). There was no significant difference between the two groups in the incidence of lower limb temperature abnormality and low back pain/low back pain (P>0.05). Conclusion Active ankle pump exercise has important clinical value in preventing postoperative limb swelling and alleviating muscle pain after cardiacradio frequency ablation and is worth popularizing.