Shockwave: a cutting-edge medical technology that literally blows away troublesome calcifications

Shockwave therapy is a safe and effective medical alternative for the treatment of chronic injuries that are resistant to physiotherapy, medication and cortisone injections.

Shockwave therapy

What is shockwave?

The shockwave (Shock Wave Therapy) is a state-of-the-art technology that was developed from lithotripsy, a technique used for over thirty years to treat kidney stones by making them explode. Shockwave is based on the same principle: by bringing a strong increase of pressure in the tissues to be treated. This increase in pressure will trigger a series of physical and chemical transformations at the cellular level of the treated area. The main effect of shockwave is a direct mechanical force that occurs at the cellular level when the energy wave passes through the treated tissue. These waves cause a controlled impact on the tissue in question. The result is a biological reaction in the cells of that tissue that causes an increase in blood flow, which triggers a chain of reactions that accelerates the body's natural healing processes.

Shockwave has proven to be an effective treatment option for these conditions. It is unique in its ability to treat conditions that have become chronic, where other more traditional therapies have not been as effective.

Most patients treated with Shockwave Therapy frequently report immediate relief or significant reduction in pain and significant improvement in mobility after their first treatment.

Shockwave treatment

Conditions treated with shockwave

Painful trigger points
Myofascial pain syndrome
Chronic tendonitis with or without calcification
Shoulder tendonitis (with or without calcification)
Painful restriction of shoulder movement
Calcific tendonitis
Calcific bursitis
Bursitis (with or without calcification)
Patellar syndrome and achillodynia
Anterior tibial syndrome
Epicondylitis (Tennis elbow or Golfer elbow) - painful irritation of the elbow
Heel - Heel spur (Lenoir spur)
Painful inflammation under the heel or foot
Plantar Fasciitis
Patellar tendonitis - pain just below the knee cap
Trochanteric bursitis (hip)
Tendonitis of the patellar tendon
Achilles tendonitis
Scar tissue
Stress Fractures
Calcific tendinitis of the rotator cuff

shockwave therapy for bursitis or calcified tendonitis

For all these conditions, the application of shockwave has been studied and documented with great success, which largely underlines the wide range of application of this easy-to-use therapeutic procedure, which opens the way to many other applications.

Application of shockwave therapy

The scientific protocol recommends that patients receive three treatments with one week between each. Each treatment consists of approximately 2,000 shocks to an area the size of a dollar coin.

Duration of shockwave treatment

The treatment of shockwave is generally made on the basis of one visit per week and it takes, on average, 3 to 6 visits to regulate the inflammatory conditions and 6 to 10 visits for calcifications.

Is the shockwave treatment painful?

Treatments performed with first generation devices, which were put on the market 3 to 10 years ago, do cause a lot of pain to patients during treatment. However, we use the latest generation of equipment, which is more effective and especially less painful. However, there are some areas that are much more painful than others, such as when treating calcification in the shoulder or Achilles tendon. In these situations, we will apply ice about 15 minutes before the shockwave treatment to minimize your discomfort.

Contraindications to shockwave treatment

Treatments at the site of passage of nerves or large blood vessels
Poorly localized and non-palpable pain
Pregnancy
Risk of bleeding, such as in hemophilia, in anticoagulated patients, or in cases where the blood platelet count is less than 50,000
Pulmonary and cardiac region
Open scar on the area to be treated
Presence of infection or acute inflammation at the site of the lesion to be treated
Growing bones
Weakened tissues, for example by bone metastases or by prolonged intensive corticosteroid therapy.