Shockwave Therapy Treatment | Foot Doctor Las Vegas, NV 89128

What is shockwave therapy?

A healing modaility with an 82% success rate for many painful injuries. Shockwave therapy can be used on most areas of the body and provides a less invasive, fast treatment for many common conditions.

Shockwave therapy or extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) is an innovative, cost-effective, evidence-based treatment. Extracorporeal means outside of the body.

The main benefits of shockwave are pain relief and restoration of function. Shockwave therapy has been shown to be an effective treatment modality for a range of common complaints including plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendonopathy, golfers & tennis elbow. In addition we can treat the back, neck, knee, hip, all muscles, tendons and ligaments.

Shockwave therapy is a safe, non-invasive treatment with convincing evidence for its effectiveness from a large body of research and clinical trials. There are now multiple, randomized, double-blinded clinical trials that support the use of shockwave therapy for musculoskeletal injury.

What to expect from a shockwave therapy consultation and treatment:

The treatment from shockwave is fast and can be carried out in a lunch break if needed. There is no downtime, you can just get straight back to your day without missing a beat.

You will come into the Complete Foot & Ankle Care setting, complete an in-take form and then move through into the treatment space. A small amount of contact gel will be applied between your skin and the handheld device, to ensure the treatment is optimized. Treatments last around 5-7 minutes and are designed so you can at least feel the treatment taking place. At the end of the session, you simply get up and go. These sessions are repeated every 1-2 weeks and to a total of 6 visits for the package of care.

Results

How does it work?

Shockwave therapy sends an impulse to the cells of your tissues, awaking them and setting into motion a cascade of healing processes. From microscopic circulation, to something called mechanotransduction. Mechanotransduction is a process within your bodies tissues where healing comes about as a result of a specific stimulus, which for shockwave therapy patients is of great significance. With the increased cell activity and powerful stimulus your tissues not only heal faster leading to less pain and better function, but these changes last for a very long time. The ASSERT protocol, a study designed to look at the long term effects of shockwave therapy, demonstrated a peak of change at 3 months, but continued to show improvements for over 2 years post treatment.

What is shockwave therapy used for?

Shockwave therapy is an effective treatment modality for a variety of lower and upper limb conditions. These include:

Back Pain
Neck Pain
Shoulder pain
Carpal Tunnel
Bone injuries – Shin splints (MTSS), stress fractures and non-union fractures
Calcific tendinopathy
Tennis elbow (common extensor tendinopathy)
Golfer’s elbow (common flexor tendinopathy)
Greater trochanteric pain syndrome (also referred to as gluteus medius tendinopathy and/or trochanteric bursitis)
Proximal Hamstring Tendinopathy (also referred to as high hamstring tendinopathy, or hamstring origin tendinopathy)
Patella tendinopathy
Insertional Achilles tendinopathy
Mid-portion Achilles tendinopathy
Plantar fasciitis
And MUCH More

How does shockwave therapy work?

This is sometimes known as its ‘mechanism of action’. Shockwave therapy uses a specialist device to deliver acoustic energy through the skin to the injured part of the body. The shockwaves are mechanical and not electric. They are audible, low-energy sound waves, which increase the blood flow to the injured area. Shockwave therapy has two main modes of action which will help with persistent tendon pain. First the shockwaves work to desensitise nerve endings which will often give an immediate reduction in pain. Secondly, and often most importantly, the shockwaves cause controlled micro-trauma (microscopic damage) to the tissues which encourages the body to respond by increasing the blood circulation and metabolism in the affected area. This will activate and accelerate the body’s own healing response. The shockwaves can also ‘breakdown’ disorganised tissue and calcifications. There is a significant body of evidence supporting the use of shockwave therapy in many common conditions. Shockwave therapy significantly reduced the pain that accompanies tendinopathies and improves functionality and quality of life. It has been stated that shockwave therapy has a 82% success rate for tendinopathies (Romp 2009, Moya et al, 2018, Dedes et al 2018).