Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy

Shockwave therapy is a very useful and affective treatment for many musculoskeletal problems.

Some of the more common conditions that can benefit from this type of therapy are:

- Bone/ligament interface injuries such as high   suspensory injuries

- Other tendon or ligament injuries

- Back pain such as muscular, intraspinous   ligaments, “Kissing spines”, and sacroiliac   problems

- Stress fractures, non-displaced fractures,   “bucked   shins”

- Popped splints

- Degenerative joint disease of the hocks

- Ringbone

- Caudal heal pain/Navicular disease

How does it work and why does it help?

Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy (ESWT) machines generate acoustic pressure waves that penetrate tissues and act to increase circulation and therefore help bring growth factors to the injured area which stimulates and accelerates the healing process. It also stimulates subchondral bone remodeling and disintegration of calcification in tissues. ESWT also has rather potent analgesic properties after treatment. Recovery times on many injuries can be significantly reduced with the use of ESWT. One of the greatest examples of this is with a high suspensory injury - recovery time can be reduced by months in many cases.

Currently there are two different types of shockwave units on the market - Focused and Radial. A focused machine generates more power in a smaller area, therefore becoming more capable of penetrating deeper tissues. A radial machine disperses the waves over a greater, more superficial area.

The Versatron Focused ESWT unit made by Sanuwave is the machine currently used by our practice. We are very excited about it’s addition to our therapy options. Learn more about this technology at www.sanuwave.com