Shockwave Therapy Treatment
Allison Swan has been offering Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy (ESWT) for over the last 4 years at her practice. She has found it to be a very successful treatment for musculoskeletal conditions causing pain. It is a an excellent form of treatment for:-
1. Chronic Tendonitis pain.
2. Fascia related issues.
3. Chronic muscle tension.
She has found patients with certain MSK problems has had immediate benefits, such as:-
1. Tennis/Golfer elbow pain.
2. Achilles Tendonitis issues.
3. Chronic knee pain.
What Allison says about the treatment:-
Shockwave is an excellent form of treatment to treat chronic tendonitis and MSK conditions. Though the treatment can be uncomfortable, the plus side is the treatment is very short. Each treatment sessions is usually 90 seconds. So, some discomfort for a very brief time. As soon as the treatment, stops there is no discomfort. You often get some immediate pain relief from having the treatment, which is a bonus, but this is only a therapeutic effect. What ESWT actually, does is cause an acute inflammatory response. Bascially, it is starting the healing process from scratch. That is why it is so effective. By starting the healing process from the very start, you are creating an increased in blood flow and oxygen to the area, which initiates the very important early stages of healing. When you have a chronic condition, there is reduced blood flow and oxygen going to that area.
Hence, the ESWT does the exact opposite. That is why you can get an immediate therapeutic pain relief response. However, any healing process takes 12 weeks. By having a course of up to 6 weekly sessions, you are creating enough inflammatory reaction to allow the full healing process to take place. The shock waves the machine is sending, is reminding the tissue to keep creating an inflammatory reaction to keep the blood flow and oxygen travelling to that area. So even the shock wave stops after 6 weekly sessions of treatment, the healing process continues for another 6 weeks after. After 12 weeks, the tissue has fully healed and there is no longer any chronic pain.
To allow the healing process to be most effective, one session per week is recommended for up to 6 weeks. It is recommended that you do not do any excessive exercise for 24 hours post treatment. This gives the body time to respond to the mini trauma created to the tissue.
The reason how shockwave came about was it was initially used to breakdown kidney stones into small enough fragments to enable them to pass naturally through urine. This is where it was also discovered, that shockwave was very effective in treating orthopaedic related conditions. The controlled reinjuring of tissue allows the body to regenerate blood vessels and bone cells. The resulting revascularisation leads to faster healing and a return to pre-injury activity.