Plantar Fascial Pain - Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy

Plantar fasciitis is the most common cause of heel pain and many treatment options are available. The first section of this CEU course provides an overview on the physical and medical definitions of shock waves, generators, treatment of chronic plantar fasciopathy (PF), and the use of local anesthesia. It also gives a detailed assessment of the quality and significance of studies on extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) in patients with PF with different types of shock waves. The next section discusses the success rates and recurrence rates of PF after Radial Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy (rESWT) over a one-year period of time with 68 patients with an average age of 47 years. The final section investigates the use of ESWT of PF using gastroc-soleus trigger points in combination with the more traditional heel region, and compares it to ESWT of just the heel. We will examine an eight-week clinical study with 40 randomly divided patients and the results on the VAS scale at the end of the treatment sessions. The reading materials for this course include articles from the Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research, BioMed Research International, and Advanced Biomedical Research.