Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy
Original Editor - Your name will be added here if you created the original content for this page.
Top Contributors - Cindy John-Chu, Sue Safadi, Amanda Ager, Ayushi Tomer, Kim Jackson and Carina Therese Magtibay
History of extracorporeal shockwave therapy[edit | edit source]
Clinical use of ESWT was first introduced into practice in 1982 for urologic conditions. This technology quickly became utilized as a first-line, noninvasive, and effective method for the treatment of urinary stones. Subsequently, ESWT was studied in orthopedics where is was identified that ESWT could loosen the cement in total hip arthroplasty revisions.
Animal studies conducted in the 1980s revealed that not only could shockwaves disturb the bone-cement interface [4] but also found an osteogenic response and improved fracture healing. While ESWT has been shown to provide benefit in fracture healing the majority of orthopedic research has focused on ESWT for treatment of upper and lower extremity tendinopathies, fasciopathies, and soft tissue conditions.
Subsequent clinical applications in musculoskeletal conditions have been described in treatment of plantar fasciopathy, both upper and lower extremity tendinopathies, greater trochanteric pain syndrome, medial tibial stress syndrome, management of nonunion fractures, and joint disease including avascular necrosis
Physiology of ESWT[edit | edit source]
Shockwaves are sound waves that have certain physical characteristics, including nonlinearity, high peak pressure followed by low tensile amplitude, short rise time
Clinical Guidelines[edit | edit source]
Extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) is primarily used in the treatment of common orthopedic conditions. These include patellar tendinopathy, achilles tendinopathy, medial tibial stress syndrome, plantar fasciopathy and lateral epicondylitis.
There is no standardized ESWT protocol for the treatment of musculoskeletal conditions.
Resources[edit | edit source]
add appropriate resources here, including text links or content demonstrating the intervention or technique
