Comparison of effectiveness of the extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) and steroid injection at plantar fasciitis treatment

Abstract

Aim and scope. Plantar fasciitis is one of the leading causes of heel pain and approximately 10% of the population has plantar fasciitis. Plantar fasciitis is a self limiting clinical situation and most of the patients benefits from conservative treatment. The purpose of the study was to compare effectiveness of the extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) and local steroid injection at plantar fasciitis patients.
Method. 30 patients with heel pain were enrolled into study were divided into two groups randomly. One of the group received steroid treatment, the other group received ESWT treatment. The steroid group had (n=15) 3 mg betametason acetate, 3.947 mg betametasondisodium phosphate and 20mg 2% prilocain injection; where the maximum tenderness and pain point; the ESWT group (n=15) had ESWT treatment (15 Hz frequency, 20 Barr Energy and 2000 shocks/session once a week) for total 3 sessions. Results. For ESWT group; VAS scores were decreased from 7.56 to 5.2 one week after treatment; to 3.78 one month after the treatment and to 3.67 three month after the treatment; respectively. Steroid groups VAS scores were decreased from 6.55 to 3.11 one week after treatment; to 2.14 one month after treatment and to 1.42 three month after treatment; respectively. Both of the groups VAS scores were decreased statistically significantly.
Conclusion. As a result, both steroid injection and ESWT application are effective and safe treatment methods in heel pain caused by plantar fasciitis and are alternative methods for surgical treatment. In our study, we found that local steroid injection application provided significantly greater decrease in pain according to ESWT treatment. Local steroid injection has shown more successful than ESWT treatment.

Key words:

plantar fasciitis, visual analog pain scale (VAS), extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT), steroid injection