The Use of ESWT for Heel Pain and Other Joint Pains

Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy or ESWT is a new treatment used for heel pain, foot pain, various types of joint pains. This new medical device is approved in the US by the FDA for treating foot pain due to plantar fasciitis and tennis elbow. There are many more future approvals from the FDA with the use of ESWT for other health conditions like Achilles tendinitis, patella tendinitis and a lot more.

ESWT is a unique treatment because it stimulates the natural healing properties of the body and can cure chronic pain. There are two theories on how this device promotes tissue healing:

1. The shock waves produced by ESWT machine induces microscopic injuries to the affected area, creating new growth of vascularisation. Increased vascularisation means more blood flow to the injured muscle tissues, ligaments and tendons.

2. Since there are tiny injuries produced by shock wave, the body naturally treats the newly induced injuries and at the same time heals old joint injuries that the body has been ignoring or desensitized to. This makes ESWT very ideal for treating chronic pain.

Extracorporeal is a medical term which means that a medical procedure is done outside the body. It is a low-risk and non-invasive procedure with minimal or no side effects.

The procedure is simple and is very similar to ultrasound. First, the damaged tissue is located around the painful area of the body. Once the targeted tissue is found, multiple shock waves are introduced to create micro injuries which actually help to induce the natural healing process, creating new tissue growth and therefore repairing new or chronically damaged tendons.

This is all done in just 30 minutes and depending on the extent of damage, it may require successive sessions to treat the pain. Some patients feel mild discomfort after the procedure. For some, the pain relief is observed with a single treatment while for others, heel pain is relief is gradual with ESWT treatment.