Sports Medicine & Orthopedics Research
Characteristics of chronic rotator cuff tears include continuous loss of tendon structure as well as tendon elasticity, followed by a high failure rate after surgical reconstruction. Several studies have already shown the beneficial effect of extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) on tissue regeneration in tendon pathologies.
ECM components are considered essential mediators in the niche for the maintenance of stem cell identity, expression, and activation. It simultaneously provides the niche structural integrity, and physically separates the stem cell pool from other tissue resident cells.
Extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) is a noninvasive treatment that involves delivery of shock waves to injured soft tissue to reduce pain and promote healing. According to Jonathan T. Finnoff, D.O., medical director for Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine at Mayo Clinic Square in Minneapolis, ESWT is a viable option to consider for many patients who present with chronic tendinopathy that hasn’t responded to more-conservative treatments.
The purpose of this meta-analysis was to assess the effects of extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) on reducing spasticity immediately and 4 weeks after application of ESWT. The Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS) grade was significantly improved immediately after ESWT compared with the baseline values.
The physical shaking of the tissue by the shock waves leads to a mechanotransduction; the conversion of mechanical signals (e. g. shear, compression, tension) into electrical or chemical signals responses in the tissue.
The proposed therapeutic mechanisms of action for Li-ESWT include neovascularization, tissue regeneration, and reduction of inflammation. These effects are thought to be mediated by enhanced expression of vascular endothelial growth factor, endothelial nitric oxide synthase, and proliferating cell nuclear antigen.
Extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) is an effective and safe noninvasive treatment option for tendon and other pathologies of the musculoskeletal system.
Pain of the musculoskeletal system can seriously restrict the mobility of the affected persons and their participation in daily life. With the Spark WaveTM Therapy an effective alternative for medicaments and surgical therapy methods respectively has been established for various orthopedic indications. Shock wave therapy represents a non-invasive therapy option. It is considered to be safe, easily tolerable and effective.
The extracorporeal generated shock wave therapy (ESWT) is the golden standard worldwide to treat urolithiasis. Nowadays, its curative effect is used for many other indications like musculoskeletal diseases, e.g. calcaneal spur, calcified shoulder, patella-tip syndrome, pseudoarthrosis and even bone fractures.
There has been remarkable progress in Shockwave technology regarding the knowledge of its biological and therapeutic effects. Its mechanism of action is based on acoustic mechanical waves that act at the molecular, cellular, and tissue levels to generate a biological response.
“Today we average a success rate of almost 90% for tibia non-unions with a single treatment, after an average of two failed surgeries and over 9 months of non-union.” – Dr. Schaden
The objective of the study was to compare the effects of shockwave therapy and laser therapy on pain, neck functionality, and quality of life in patients with myofascial pain syndrome of the trapezius.
Shockwave treatments (ESWT), based upon the stimulation of bone turnover, osteoblast stimulation and neovascularization by mechanotransduction, have been successfully used to treat delayed unions and avascular necrosis.
Several cases of delayed bone consolidation have been treated with extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) to improve bone healing and a key role of the extracellular matrix glycosaminoglycans in osteogenesis has been suggested.
For over a decade shockwave therapy (SWT) have been utilized successfully to manage sports injuries. Our investigation aimed to determine the effects of SWT on muscle tissue of healthy subjects.
Extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) is used in a number of indications in the medical field. A number of tendinopathies show good and excellent results due to evidence based medicine. This overview of the published RCT’s on ESWT for lateral epicondylitis tries to show the reasons for this conflicting data-base and point out, why we think that this is still a main indication for extracorporeal shockwave therapy.
The purpose of this review article is to demonstrate by peer-reviewed literature in conjunction with our own experiences that ESWT can be an efficient, non-invasive, almost complication-free and cost effective alternative to surgical treatment of non-healing fractures.
The biological effects of ESWT are reported such as tissue regeneration, wound healing, angiogenesis, bone remodeling, and anti-inflammation. This article describes the molecular mechanism on the current status of ESWT with pre-clinical and clinical applications for treating disorders in bone.
Shock wave therapy can be an effective treatment for fracture nonunions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of shock wave therapy as a treatment of these nonunions.
Delayed and nonunion of the tibia are not uncommon in orthopedic practice. The objective of this study was to define disease-specific and treatment-related factors of prognostic significance in patients undergoing shock wave therapy for tibia nonunion.
This paper shows how extracorporeal shock wave treatment may reorganize pathologic memory traces, thus giving cause to real and permanent pain relief. In a generalized manner, the idea of associative memory functions may help in the understanding of conditioning as a learning process and explain extracorporeal shock wave application as an efficient treatment concept for chronic pain.
We prospectively studied extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) for calcific tendinitis of the shoulder in 46 consecutive patients. All patients were randomly divided into 2 groups: treatment and control. The 33 patients in the treatment group received 2 courses of ESWT at the energy density of 0.55 mJ/mm2 (1000 impulses). The control group underwent sham treatment with a dummy electrode (13 patients).
Extracorporeal shock wave treatment has been used successfully for the treatment of avascular necrosis of the femoral head. We therefore examined the effect of extracorporeal shock waves on induction of BMP-2 in necrotic femoral heads.
Comparison of extracorporeal shockwaves with core decompression and bone-grafting.
Recent experimental evidence and anecdotal clinical impressions of extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) for the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA) have been reported.
Extracorporeal shockwave therapy is a non-surgical procedure that replaces the scalpel with powerful acoustic waves. Acoustic SoftWaves increase blood flow, provoking the body to heal itself. There are no incisions, no stitches, and patients can resume normal activity in just a day or two.
The use of extracorporeal shockwave therapy to treat non-unions in patients that do not need surgical correction proved to be effective in a large patient pool.