13/01/2025
This is a bit of a mental moment for me. However, some of you may have been aware of a recent study by well respected authors demonstrating that shock wave therapy is no more beneficial than placebo.
So as a result, Christoph Schmitz, Javier Crupnik, Myself, Edwards Silk, Nicola Maffulli and Antoni Morral decided to review and respond to the paper. That response is visible below and is available in pre-print version online now.
In summary, the opinion from the authors that shock wave therapy only provides placebo benefits and should not be used in Insertional Achilles Tendinopathy should not be generalised to ALL shock wave therapy with ALL devices.
The original article overlooks key fundamental research which has highlighted that not all devices perform within the same parameters, as well as, well established evidence that overall energy provided into the tissue is irrelevant when compared to single impulse energy.
Shock wave therapy, in my experience, has always played a significant role in the management of lower limb tendinopathy, and we will continue to offer this service in clinical practice.
Radial extracorporeal shock wave therapy (rESWT) is an established modality in the management of Achilles tendinopathy. A recent study published in Clinical Rehabilitation reported that the addition of rESWT to exercise and education did not lead to improvements in pain, function or other outcomes c...
