Tratamento fisioterapêutico da fasciíte plantar / Physiotherapeutic treatment of plantar fasciitis

A fasciíte plantar ou síndrome da dor do calcanhar é uma causa frequente de dor no calcanhar e no pé em adultos que acomete cerca de 2 milhões de americanos por ano e estima-se que cerca de 10% da população mundial já apresentou ou irá apresentar queixa de dor no pé em algum momento da vida. Objetivo: Realizar uma revisão da literatura a fim de verificar a efetividade das modalidades de tratamento fisioterapêutico em pacientes com fasciíte plantar. Método: Foi realizada uma busca eletrônica nas bases de dados Cochrane Library, Medline (via Pubmed), PEDro, LILACS, sem restrições de data e idioma. Foram incluídos, no presente estudo, os artigos que abordaram o tratamento fisioterapêutico na fasciíte plantar e excluídos os artigos que tiveram como foco o tratamento cirúrgico. Resultados: No total, 23 estudos cumpriram os critérios de inclusão. As modalidades encontradas foram: Alongamento de tríceps sural, terapia manual, bandagens, órteses/palmilhas e eletroterapia. Conclusão: Há evidência moderada de que os exercícios para alongamento do tríceps sural proporcionam benefícios aos pacientes com fasciite plantar. A evidência da aplicação de bandagens ainda é fraca, porém alguns estudos relatarem melhora da dor e função a curto prazo. Há evidência de qualidade que suporte que o uso de palmilhas customizadas proporciona melhora da dor e função a curto prazo em pacientes com fasciíte plantar. A utilização de talas noturnas apresenta resultados controversos, apesar de alguns estudos terem apresentado bons resultados.

Plantar fasciitis or heel pain syndrome is a common cause of heel and foot pain in adults that affects about 2 million Americans a year and it is estimated that about 10% of the world's population have presented or will present foot pain at some time in their life. Objective: To review the literature in order to verify the effectiveness of the modalities of physical therapy in patients with plantar fasciitis. Method: An electronic search was conducted in the databases of the Cochrane Library, Medline (via Pubmed), PEDro, and LILACS, with no date or language restrictions. In the present study, articles about the physical therapy for plantar fasciitis and those that have focused on the surgical treatment were included. Results: In total, 23 studies met the inclusion criteria. The procedures were: Stretching sural triceps, manual therapy, bandaging, orthotics/insoles and electrotherapy. Conclusions: There is moderate evidence that stretching exercises for the triceps surae provide benefits to patients with plantar fasciitis. The evidence of the application of bandages is still weak, but some studies have reported improvement in pain and function in the short term. There is good quality evidence supporting the use of custom insoles that can provide short-term improvement in pain and function in patients with plantar fasciitis. The use of night splints presents controversial results, although some studies have shown good results.

Role of physical medicine and rehabilitation intervention for plantar fasciitis

To highlight the role of early physical medicine and rehabilitation. Randomized case control study. Armed Forces Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine Rawalpindi from March 2002 to March 2003. Eighty patients of both sexes between 25-45 years of age were randomly divided into Study and Control group. Group 1 [study] was given standard physiatric therapeutic intervention and Group 2 [control] was given conventional treatment with heel cup and Non Steroid anti inflammatory drugs [NSAIDs]. They were followed up for three months. Pain was assessed by Visual Analog Scale [VAS] and Heel Tenderness Index [HTI]. Mean age of the patients was 35.7 years.Forty percentage cases were male and 60% were female. After three months of treatment, 75% of group 1 and 20% of group 2 showed marked improvement [VAS < 30mm]. On HTI index, 72.5% of patients were in Grade 0 [no pain] and 22.5% were in Grade I while 30% of patients in group 2 were in grade 1 [painful]. Difference was found to be statistically significant i.e. P- value < 0.05. Comprehensive rehabilitation management has shown promising results in the treatment of plantar fasciitis especially when initiated in early stages and may prove to be the mainstay modality in the treatment of plantar fasciitis in future