Chronic pain and slow-healing injuries can limit mobility and significantly impact daily life. Traditional treatments like physical therapy, medication, and surgery don’t always provide lasting relief, and some carry additional risks. High-intensity shockwave therapy offers a breakthrough solution to stimulate healing at the cellular level. Whether for difficult-to-treat tendinopathies, ligament injuries, or post-surgical recovery, this non-invasive therapy is gaining widespread recognition for reducing pain, improving circulation, and accelerating tissue repair. This article will explore how it works and who can benefit the most from this innovative treatment.
What Is High-Intensity Shockwave Therapy?
It’s a non-invasive treatment used to treat chronic pain conditions and injuries that don’t respond to conventional therapies. Also called Extracorporeal Pulse Activation Technology, or EPAT, it’s widely used in regenerative medicine to promote healing, reduce pain, improve range of motion, and break up calcium deposits. This makes it particularly useful in treating ligament injuries that can be otherwise difficult to heal and for post-surgical treatment to relieve discomfort, improve mobility, and speed up recovery times.
How Does High-Intensity Shockwave Therapy Work?
Shockwave therapies involve the practitioner using a handheld device to deliver acoustic energy shockwaves in nanoseconds or microseconds to targeted body areas. There are two primary methods, and depending on the targeted area, patients may receive one, the other, or both types.
Radial shockwave therapies use a handheld device with maximum intensity at the tip of the device where it contacts the skin. It produces radial waves that spread out in all directions over a wide area, losing intensity the further they travel from the source. This makes it useful for treating broad superficial areas close to the skin.
Focused shockwaves use a different handheld device where the acoustic waves are focused through a cone-shaped arrangement of piezoelectric crystals. This directs and concentrates the high-energy waves to achieve a maximum intensity deep in the tissues while allowing more precision targeting.
While the methods and effective depths vary, radial and focused forms similarly affect the body. They increase cell membrane permeability, which enhances cellular metabolism. It also stimulates the release of growth factors, which promote tissue regeneration, including stimulating cells responsible for generating new bone and connective tissues. It also enhances local blood flow, which helps reduce pain and inflammation and adds to the healing effect. Additionally, it causes a degradation of the nerve bundle, which helps modulate pain via the peripheral nervous system.
What Conditions Can High-Intensity Shockwave Therapy Treat?
- Achilles tendinopathy (discomfort in the tendon connecting the back of the foot to the calf muscle).
- Plantar fasciitis (pain in the underside of the foot).
- Bony heel spurs.
- Hamstring injuries.
- Bursitis.
- Medial tibial stress syndrome (shin splints).
- Rotator cuff injuries, especially those with calcium deposits, a partial tear of the rotator cuff, and bicep injuries.
- Tennis elbow (pain on the outer side of the elbow).
- Golfer elbow (discomfort on the inner side of the elbow).
- Patellofemoral syndrome (runner’s knee).
- Calcific tendonitis (supraspinatus tendon, etc.).
- Patellar tendinosis (jumper’s knee).
- Iliotibial band Syndrome, or ITBS (pain from the outside of the hip down the outer thigh to the outside of the knee).
- Gluteal muscle strain, bursitis, iliopsoas bursitis, and hip flexor tendinosis.
- Chronic stress/non-union fractures.
What Are the Benefits and Risks of High-Intensity Shockwave Therapy?
There are numerous benefits of shockwave therapies. Here are some of the primary ones.
Benefits
- Non-invasive outpatient therapy.
- It can safely be used in conjunction with other treatment modalities.
- Effective in treating a wide range of muscle, tendon, and soft tissue conditions.
- Useful in reducing chronic pain and inflammation.
- It promotes better circulation in damaged tissues.
- It stimulates the healing of damaged tissue.
- It improves mobility and flexibility.
- Reduces scarring and speeds recovery after surgeries.
Risks and Contraindications
Few risks are associated with this treatment; they typically resolve themselves within a day or two. They include:
- Temporary pain at the site of application.
- Bruising, swelling, or tingling after the treatment.
Contraindications may pose additional risks. They include the following:
- Coagulation disorders, including thrombosis or occlusive vascular disease.
- Use of anticoagulants including Warfarin, Eliquis, Xarelto, etc.
- Carcinomas and cancer patients undergoing treatment.
- Metal pins or plates in the area of treatment.
- Pregnancy.
- Polyneuropathy in diabetes mellitus.
- Acute inflammation associated with infections.
- Children with open-growth plates.
- Patients who have received steroid injections in the last 12 weeks.
- Patients taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory painkillers for the previous two weeks.
Who Is High-Intensity Shockwave Therapy Suitable For?
Patients With Difficult-to-Heal Injuries
Patients with injuries to tendons, ligaments, and bones that are not responding to traditional therapy methods are good candidates.
Chronic Conditions
Patients with chronic pain, inflammation, stiffness, and mobility issues are also good candidates.
Tendon Conditions at The Bone Insertion Site
It’s also effective in conditions affecting medium to large-sized tendons and their insertions on bone. This includes painful tendinopathy conditions such as plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendinopathy, retrocalcaneal bursitis, tennis elbow, golfer’s elbow, jumper’s knee, and others.
Calcific Conditions
Since it also breaks up calcium deposits, they’re helpful in rotator cuff injuries involving calcium deposits and other calcific tendonitis conditions.
Final Thoughts
High-intensity shockwave treatments are transforming the way we treat chronic pain and stubborn injuries by offering a non-invasive, safe, and effective alternative to surgery and medication. Enhancing circulation, breaking down calcifications, and stimulating cellular regeneration, it provides long-term pain relief and improved mobility. If you’re considering integrating shockwave therapies into your practice, Maven Imaging offers high-quality equipment to help you provide cutting-edge care.
