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

Abstract

The review article published in the previous issue of The Polish Journal of Physiotherapy added the most recent findings to the analysis of focused and radial shockwaves applied to treat pseudarthrosis, tendinosis calcarea, heel spurs, plantar fasciitis, tendinitis and inflammation of muscle attachments, etc., which was published three years earlier. Considering that the range of shockwave application in orthopaedics and physiotherapy is constantly broadening, this review examines shockwaves with respect to their effect on patients with Peyronie’s disease, femoral head necrosis, soft tissue defects and other disease entities. This article aims to extend the two earlier reviews by adding the omitted applications and thereby to make the list of indications for shockwave therapy more comprehensive. Except for single instances, this review concentrates on presenting reports where shockwave therapy was used to treat lesions that patients frequently report as requiring medical intervention as well as representing the most frequent indications for this modality.

Key words:

focused shockwave, radial shockwave, physiotherapy