Softwave TRT in Metairie, LA

Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy, (or ESWT), is a new technology using shockwaves to treat chronic, painful conditions of the musculoskeletal system. A shockwave is an intense, but very short energy wave traveling faster than the speed of sound. The word “Extra-corporeal” means “outside the body” and refers to the fact that the shockwaves are generated outside the body.

Extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) is sometimes alternatively known as shockwave biosurgery, though ESWT isn’t surgery as the word is usually defined or understood in North America.

The basic science behind ESWT is analogous to lithotripsy, the technology that uses acoustic shockwaves to break up kidney stones without surgery. The technique of using shockwaves to break up kidney stones has been around for a nearly a quarter century now, and in the process of treating thousands and thousands of patients, it was found that many people undergoing the procedure had other unrelated aches and pains disappear. It was at this point that scientists began to consider that shockwaves may have an effect to heal other sorts of tissues.

Specialized machines were then developed specifically with the idea of using these shockwaves on other parts of the body, and this is the origin of ESWT.

The type of shockwave therapy we use, then, is specialized to specifically help treat musculoskeletal conditions.

ESWT is not typically used in the presence of bone tumours, certain metabolic bone conditions, and certain nerve or circulation disorders. ESWT isn’t typically used in pregnant patients and locations of an open growth plate, (where the bone is still growing). It’s not currently used in areas where an infection is present, (though there is some early research suggesting ESWT may actually help with infection). It also shouldn’t be used in conditions or locations where gas or air is present in the body, (rare in the locations where ESWT is typically used)-or for other conditions as determined by your doctor.

The answer to this question depends upon which study you read, what methods were used in the study, how “success” is measured in the study, the patients selected to be included in the study, the condition being treated, and the machine being used.

While there are some studies (usually quoted by an insurance company trying to find a way to justify not paying for ESWT treatment) that suggest that shockwave hasn’t been proven to be effective, the vast majority of recent studies suggest that shockwave is highly effective. For example, over 70 studies were presented at the 2006 international shockwave seminar in Brazil, and over 80 were presented the year before in Vienna–and this doesn’t even include the numerous published findings in the medical literature.

Assuming you have an injury appropriate to extracorporeal shockwave technology treatment, most recent independent studies suggest somewhere between a 65% and a 95% “success” range, with values around 80% being the most commonly cited number. And it’s important to note that most of these studies have success rates as determined by the patient, himself, in terms of pain and function.

We find that our results with the highly accurate piezoelectric technology, are at least this successful. The most important factor in getting a good result with ESWT appears to be in selecting appropriate patients most likely to benefit from this technology. However, we can’t predict which patients will respond successfully to ESWT and which ones won’t.

We find that many patients get an initial degree of improvement almost immediately following treatment. This effect is usually (but not always) temporary, and is associated with an anesthesia effect from the hyperstimulation of the tissue from the ESWT.

It takes several days for injuries to begin to heal, and many patients see an improvement before the end of the second week. Depending upon your diagnosis, the healing process may take several weeks or even months to be completed, but pain relief often precedes the completion of the healing process.

The basic technology involved with extracorporeal softwave TRT technology has been used for decades now on quite literally millions of people. The technology has been used most extensively in Europe, particularly the German-speaking countries, where this technology originates. In all its use, ESWT of the musculoskeletal system has been found to have virtually no serious side-effects. In fact, even mild side effects like tingling, aching, redness, or bruising are relatively rare, modest and short-lived.

Further, effects like these appear to be more common with higher energy treatments, particularly those from earlier generations of ESWT technology than that which we use. We’ll discuss more about the different ESWT technologies below.

Simply put, extracorporeal shockwaves stimulate certain components within the body so the body is able to heal. And ESWT is able to accomplish this even in chronic cases, when the body has demonstrated a previous unwillingness or inability to do so by itself.

In addition to stimulating the healing process, ESWT seems to have a direct effect on nerves, diminishing pain.

Many traditional therapies–such as anti-inflammatory medications, steroid injections, physiotherapy, massage, acupuncture, and so forth-can assist the body during the early, acute phase of an injury. However, they are much less effective in assisting the body to heal when an injury becomes chronic. As an example, many patients can relate to a history where a steroid injection (like cortisone) seemed to be effective in resolving pain early in their healing process, but subsequent injections were much less effective. This isn’t really surprising when you realize that a chronic-state, degenerative injury isn’t likely to respond well to a medication designed to affect an acute-phase, inflammatory condition.

What makes ESWT unique is that it is one of the very few technologies in any field of medicine that seems to work best when an injury reaches the chronic, non-healing state. ESWT appears to be able to jump start the healing process in chronic, non-healing injuries and move them back into the acute phase of healing.

While investigations are still being conducted to more fully understand the precise mechanism behind ESWT’s effects on injured tissues, the picture is becoming much clearer.

• True ESWT produces a very strong energy pulse (5-100 MPa) for a very short length of time, (approximately 10 milliseconds).
• The energy pulse quite literally breaks the sound barrier, and this is what creates the shockwave.