Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy for Painful Heterotopic Ossification after Traumatic Transtibial Amputation

ABSTRACT

The incidence of heterotopic ossification (HO) was reported to be higher in combat-injured patients than in civilian trauma patients. HO is often considered a possible cause of residual limbs pain in amputee. Here, we report the case of a 21-year-old male, who underwent a traumatic right transfemoral and left transtibial amputation with two segments of painful HO around his left amputation site. We report the effect of extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) on size and pain associated with HO. After ESWT, the visual analog scale score decreased from 5∼6 to 0∼1 and the size of two masses decreased from 13.1 × 6.7 mm and 12.5 mm to 11.9 × 4.7 mm and 12.2 mm, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case that has reported on the treatment of HO using ESWT for a traumatic transtibial amputation patient. The case suggests that ESWT could serve as a complementary treatment for HO in traumatic amputation patient.