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Abstract

Introduction: In the literature, the effectiveness of the extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) in patients with heel spur was confirmed, but the therapy protocol has not been established when used as monotherapy. The aim of the study was to verify whether the frequency of ESWT and the number of sessions used as monotherapy in patients with heel spur have an impact on the final result of the therapy. Methods: 85 patients were divided into three subgroups. All patients were treated 5 times with different intervals between ESWT sessions, in the group I, ESWT was administered every day, in group II every other day and in the group III once a week. Results: Before starting therapy, pain level in VAS in subgroups I, II and III was 6, 7 and 9, respectively. After two weeks, the pain level was equal 4 in all subgroups. In this time, the subgroup I was one week after completing therapy, subgroup II was just after completing therapy and subgroup III after 2 out of 5 treatments. Finally, after 8 weeks, when all subgroups terminated therapy, VAS was in the range 2–3. When comparing the subgroups, with the numbers available no significant difference could be detected. Conclusion: Received results proved the effectiveness of ESWT used as monotherapy in patients with heel spur. The length of the intervals between subsequent ESWT sessions did not have a statistically significant impact on the final result of the therapy, which was at a similar level in all subgroups.

Author ORCID Identifier

Anna Karafová; ORCID - 0000-0003-1346-7438

Daria Budnicka; ORCID - 0009-0000-5626-6463

Barbara Duda-Biernacka; ORCID - 0000-0003-2388-2264

Wiolleta Mikuľáková; ORCID - 0000-0002-1189-8771

Marian Karafa; ORCID - 0000-0003-0927-6655

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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