Low-energy extracorporeal shock wave therapy for painful heel: a prospective controlled single-blind study

Abstract

The aim of this prospective single-blind pilot study was to explore the pain-alleviating effect of low-energy extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) in painful heel associated with inferior calcaneal spurs. Thirty patients who suffered from persistent symptoms for more than 12 months qualified for low-energy ESWT and were assigned at random to two groups, real or simulated ESWT. Before beginning the treatment, any other therapy was stopped for a period of 6 weeks. The shock waves were applied by a experimental device allowing exact localization through an integrated fluoroscopy unit. Patients were treated three times at weekly intervals. Each time 1000 impulses of 0.06 mJ/mm2 were given around the heel spur. Follow-ups were done after 3, 6, 12 and 24 weeks. Patients of the placebo group who did not improve at the 6-week follow-up were then offered ESWT therapy and were checked at 3, 6, 12 and 24 weeks after the last treatment. Whereas we noticed no significant differences between the groups before ESWT, there was a significant alleviation of pain and improvement of function at all follow-ups in the treatment group.

Electrohydraulic High-Energy Shock-Wave Treatment for Chronic Plantar Fasciitis

“…Extracorporeal shock-wave treatments have been applied to patients with chronic plantar fasciitis who have failed to respond to multiple conservative pharmacologic and therapeutic interventions [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] . Recent randomized, controlled stud- ies have been published but with varying results because of differences in study design, direction of the shock-wave delivery, energy levels, size (volume) of the focused energy ellipsoid (f 2 ) that is transcutaneously transmitted to the fascia, and method of forming the shock wave (electrohydraulic, electromagnetic, and piezoelectric) 32,[39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52] . One study found that satisfactory results were maintained five years following electromagnetic shock-wave treatment 43 .…”

“…This anesthetic technique also allows the treatment of both heels when appropriate levels of chronic fascial pain are present bilaterally 67 . Rompe et al performed several studies on the treatment of plantar fasciitis with shock waves 4,32,39,43 . Those studies all used electromagnetically generated shock waves, involved multiple treatments, and varied considerably with respect to the treatment protocols.…”

Effects of shock wave therapy in the skin of patients with progressive systemic sclerosis: a pilot study

“…ESW have a positive influence on both calcifying tendonitis of the shoulder and fracture healing [10][11]. Moreover, low-energy shock waves therapy is used for persistent tennis elbow syndrome and painful heel with significant positive clinical results [12][13].…”

Extracorporeal shock wave therapy for plantar fasciitis. A double blind randomised controlled trial

“…More recently extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) has been used in the treatment of a number of musculoskeletal conditions, including insertional disorders such as plantar fasciitis, at doses of 10-20'%1 of those used in lithotripsy of renal calculi [3,7,11,13,14,16,19]. The rationale for such an approach is the stimulation of soft tissue healing, reduction of calcification, inhibition of pain receptors, or denervation *Corresponding author.…”