Extracorporeal Shockwave Treatment
Extracorporeal shockwave treatment is an advanced modality to treat soft tissue, bone and joint disorders. This technology has many orthopedic applications and is used for the treatment of plantar fasciitis, achilles’ tendonitis and shin splints by Dr. Nodelman.
Typically, with chronic pain and tendon issues, the body’s healing process shuts down. Shockwave treatment sends ballistic soundwaves of energy into the diseased tissues causing microtrauma and a desirable inflammatory response to restart the healing process. With this inflammatory response there is an increase in blood flow and release of growth factors that induce healing of the tissues.
The benefit of shockwave treatment is that it is non-invasive. Some discomfort can be experienced during the 5-minute procedure, most patients will tolerate this well with no need for local anesthesia. Additionally, depending on the extent of injury/pathology, there is typically no downtime and patients can carry on with regular activities including athletics as tolerated.
Extracorporeal shockwave is complementary to other treatments such as orthoses, muscle strengthening, stretching and physical therapy.
We offer both radial and focused shockwave at our clinic. There are benefits to both options. Radial does not penetrate as deep but is an excellent option for soft tissue disorders like plantar fasciitis. Focused shockwave is a more powerful unit and can penetrate deeper and is a better options for bone pathology (like insertional achilles tendonitis with a bone spur), bone marrow edema syndrome, bone delayed/non-unions and avascular necrosis.
Typically 4 treatments are prescribed for maximal benefit but improvement in your condition does typically occur over the next 2-3 months following the last treatment.