• Am J Sports Med · May 2006

    High-energy extracorporeal shock wave therapy as a treatment for insertional Achilles tendinopathy.

    • John Patrick Furia.
    • SUN Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, Lewisburg, PA, USA. jfuria@ptd.net
    • Am J Sports Med. 2006 May 1; 34 (5): 733-40.

    BackgroundResults of high-energy extracorporeal shock wave therapy for the treatment of insertional Achilles tendinopathy are not determined. It is unclear how local anesthesia alters the outcome of this procedure.HypothesisExtracorporeal shock wave therapy is an effective treatment for insertional Achilles tendinopathy. Local anesthesia field block adversely affects outcome.Study DesignCase control study; Level of evidence, 3.MethodsThirty-five patients with chronic insertional Achilles tendinopathy were treated with 1 dose of high-energy extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT group; 3000 shocks; 0.21 mJ/mm2; total energy flux density, 604 mJ/mm2), and 33 were treated with nonoperative therapy (control group). All extracorporeal shock wave therapy procedures were performed using a local anesthesia field block (LA subgroup, 12 patients) or a nonlocal anesthesia (NLA subgroup, 23 patients). Evaluation was by visual analog score and by Roles and Maudsley score.ResultsOne month, 3 months, and 12 months after treatment, the mean visual analog score for the control and ESWT groups were 8.2 and 4.2 (P < .001), 7.2 and 2.9 (P < .001), and 7.0 and 2.8 (P < .001), respectively. Twelve months after treatment, the number of patients with successful Roles and Maudsley scores was statistically greater in the ESWT group compared with the control group (P > .0002), with 83% of ESWT group patients having a successful result, and the mean improvement in visual analog score for the LA subgroup was significantly less than that in the NLA subgroup (F = 16.77 vs F = 53.95, P < .001). The percentage of patients with successful Roles and Maudsley scores did not differ among the LA and NLA subgroups.ConclusionExtracorporeal shock wave therapy is an effective treatment for chronic insertional Achilles tendinopathy. Local field block anesthesia may decrease the effectiveness of this procedure.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…

Want more great medical articles?

Keep up to date with a free trial of metajournal, personalized for your practice.
1,694,794 articles already indexed!

We guarantee your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.