Placebo as Good as Shock-Wave Therapy for Painful Heel Condition
People who suffer from the condition -- typically runners, and people whose jobs require them to be on their feet for much of the day -- would be just as well advised to let the ligament inflammation heal of its own accord, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Australian researchers who treated 80 patients with the condition with ultrasound-guided shock wave therapy and another 81 with a placebo, or dummy, treatment found much the same results in both groups.
"We detected no difference with respect to pain or function (in the shock-wave therapy group) compared with a placebo control," three months after the completion of the trial, AFP quoted Rachelle Buchbinder, an epidemiologist at the Cabrini Medical Center in Malvern, Australia, as saying.
The ECSW or extra-corporeal shock wave therapy works by breaking up calcified mineral buildups under the skin by means of acoustic waves.
People afflicted with this common musculoskeletal problem usually complain of pain with the first step in the morning, some relief following activity, but a recurrence of pain after extended amounts of time standing or walking.
About half of all sufferers develop a heel spur or bony outgrowth on the bottom of the heel bone -- a protective mechanism that the body develops to protect itself against the constant irritation of the ligament.
It's not entirely clear what causes the condition that affects 10 percent of runners, but some of the risk factors for developing the problem include obesity and prolonged standing or walking particularly on hard floors. 19-11