ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Medicina e Chirurgia della Caviglia e del Piede 2016 April;40(1):5-9

Copyright © 2016 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Extracorporeal shockwave therapy in achilles tendinopathy

Armando MACERA, Andrea COZZI LEPRI, Christian CARULLI, Massimo INNOCENTI

Clinica Ortopedica, Dipartimento di Medicina e Medicina Traslazionale, Università di Firenze, Italia

BACKGROUND: Achilles tendinopathy is a pain syndrome very common and widespread in the general population. Among the various treatments available, we report our experience with extracorporeal shock wave therapy. This approach has long been considered a conservative, little invasive and effective treatment, able to act on various musculoskeletal problems. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical results after extracorporeal shockwave therapy in a population of patients with Achilles tendinopathy.
METHODS: We evaluated and treated a group of 230 patients (average age of 52.0 years) with Achilles tendinopathy. Each patient underwent three application at interval of a month with a follow-up at 6 and 12 months after treatment. In all cases, patients were evaluated with the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) and AOFAS (American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society) Score.
RESULTS: At follow-up, the results were considered satisfactory with an almost complete resolution of symptoms in 185 patients out of 197 (93.9 %) with improvement both in terms of NRS (0.5) that AOFAS (87.0) at 12 months.
CONCLUSIONS: The extracorporeal shock wave therapy can be considered as a safe, inexpensive and effective treatment for many musculo­skeletal diseases including chronic Achilles tendinopathy, allowing a satisfactory relief from pain and improved functional capabilities.