A Review of the Effects and Mechanisms of Shockwave Therapy on Enthesopathy

ABSTRACT

@#Extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) for the treatment of musculoskeletal diseases is a field that is developing rapidly and attracting increasing attention. Studies exploring the effects of shockwave therapy on enthesopathy have resulted in equivocal findings. Therefore, the purpose of this review article is to collectively review and analyze published literature on the effects of shockwave therapy on enthesopathy in human studies. This is a literature review study however, systematic search was performed on Scopus, EBSCOhost (Medline, CINAHL, and Sport Discus), and Google Scholar databases. The search resulted in 112 articles, nine relevant articles that met the inclusion criteria were selected for analysis in this review. Shockwave therapy can be safe and effective to reduce pain, improve functions and activities as it accelerates the entheses healing. The exact mechanisms of shockwave therapy on enthesopathy are still debatable. Further investigation is needed to confirm and validate the findings of previous related studies.