Abstract

Despite the recently growing interest in the therapeutic use of shockwave in Poland, there is a shortage of scientific publications in the Polish language dealing with this modality. In 2009, an article was published in the Polish Journal of Physiotherapy, outlining the current state of knowledge about the therapeutic use of shockwave, but mainly analyzing the available research findings on the effects of focused and radial shockwave in treating pseudarthrosis, shoulder calcification, calcaneal spurs, plantar fasciitis, tendinitis and enthesitis, etc. The output of original research studies published worldwide in this field has greatly increased.The purpose of this paper was to complement the aforementioned analyses with new research findings published in recent years.The authors of this paper introduce readers to studies on shockwaves as used in the treatment of lesions that patients frequently report as requiring attention and which typically involve treatment with this type of stimulus.

Key words:

focused shockwave, radial shockwave, physiotherapy