A now popular and effective treatment modality for musculoskeletal conditions, ESWT is now an established therapeutic procedure for the treatment of a wide number of musculoskeletal complaints, including heel, knee, shoulder and elbow problems, calcific disorders and some fractures.
The treatment involves very high-energy pressure pulses. It aims to reduce the pain arising from nerve endings and to promote the healing response to injury.
Therapy involves 1 to 6 treatments, each lasting 15 minutes, usually performed one week apart. The shock waves are delivered to the painful area under the guidance of an imaging system.
In the first few minutes of treatment you may experience some discomfort. Patients may choose to have a local anaesthetic injection administered prior to treatment: this varies between different individuals and will be discussed with the patient.
Unlike many therapies, side effects of treatment are few. The most commonly noted one is that of discomfort during treatment. However, the delivery of the shock wave therapy can be stopped at any time during treatment.
It is important to note that it may be up to 12 weeks after the treatment course before improvement is noted. Treatment courses can be repeated if necessary.
