This publication by Dr. Sampson & his colleagues in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM)Â is the 1st of its kind summarizing all of the peer reviewed papers on extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) use in athletes and active individuals. It serves as a great reference for Athletic trainers, Physical therapists, Sports Med, Orthopedic, Pain, and Physiatry Physicians at all levels from recreational to professional sports organizations.
Shockwave is growing in popularity worldwide as a powerful tool for bone, tendon, and soft tissue musculoskeletal injuries. In our practice its used alone or in combination routinely pre & post orthobiologic injections like PRP to accelerate healing. We track our outcomes with DataBiologics and are seeing improved pain scores vs biologic injections alone.
A big thanks to our research team including Adam Tenforde Joanne Borg-Stein, and Hye Chang “HC” Rhim, MD, MPH, CSCS from Harvard University for completing this initiative together.
The paper reviews 56 studies with 1,874 athletes or physically active individuals included. Based on level I studies, ESWT may be effective alone in plantar fasciitis, lateral epicondylitis and proximal hamstring tendinopathy and as an adjunct to exercise treatment in medial tibial stress syndrome and osteitis pubis in athletes or physically active individuals. In most studies, athletes were allowed to continue activities and training and tolerated ESWT with minimal side effects which is key for this population.
We concluded that: ESWT may offer an efficacious treatment alone or as an adjunct to concurrent exercise therapy in selected sports-related injuries and without major adverse events. Further high-level research is needed to better define the role and clinical outcomes of ESWT.
