Heel Pain That Won’t Go Away? What a Major Focused Shockwave Study Found for Plantar Fasciitis

When heel pain keeps limiting your day, you want to know whether another treatment can make a meaningful difference. A major study found that focused shockwave therapy reduced pain and improved function in people with stubborn plantar fasciitis.

The benefits were assessed three months after treatment ended—an encouraging finding for patients whose symptoms have persisted despite previous care.

Key Points From This Shockwave Study for Heel Pain and Plantar Fasciitis

1. Who participated

250 patients with plantar fasciitis lasting at least six months despite multiple nonsurgical treatments; randomly assigned to focused shockwave or sham treatment.

2. Major findings

Primary outcomes were both the percentage change of heel pain on the visual analog scale composite score (pain during first steps in the morning, pain with daily activities, and pain with a force meter) and the Roles and Maudsley score at twelve weeks after the last intervention compared with the scores at baselin

• Median composite heel-pain reduction: 69.2% with shockwave versus 34.5% with sham.
• Function also improved significantly more with focused shockwave.

What These Results Mean 

This study demonstrates a significant reduction in foot and heel pain with focused shockwave therapy.

It’s important to note that the study measured reduction in pain levels in the morning, and with stepping on the affected foot.

These promising results do not indicate that the condition was completely cured with shockwave therapy, only that there was significant improvement compared to a ‘fake’ shockwave treatment.

How We Use Shockwave Therapy at Levante Chiropractic

Our focused shockwave therapy, called Stemwave, is a powerful tool that can accelerate healing in a variety of painful extremity and joint conditions.

However, Stemwave is only a part of our whole body approach to healing, which includes structural balancing through chiropractic adjustments, supportive foot orthotics as indicated, and inflammatory elements testing to reduce whole body inflammation.

Reference

Gollwitzer H, Saxena A, DiDomenico LA, Galli L, Bouché RT, Caminear DS, Fullem B, Vester JC, Horn C, Banke IJ, Burgkart R, Gerdesmeyer L. Clinically relevant effectiveness of focused extracorporeal shock wave therapy in the treatment of chronic plantar fasciitis: a randomized, controlled multicenter study. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2015 May 6;97(9):701-8. doi: 10.2106/JBJS.M.01331. PMID: 25948515.