Ultrasound Therapy for Plantar Fasciitis

Plantar fasciitis (PF) is a common chronic foot disease, characterized by heel pain, which is most severe when getting up in the morning or standing up for the first time after a long rest. It is estimated that up to 15% of adults may seek medical attention due to heel pain, making it a major challenge for primary rehabilitation physicians and orthopedic surgeons. Plantar fasciitis is often described as an overuse injury, originating from inflammatory changes at the fascial insertion point of the medial tubercle of the calcaneus. However, some studies in recent years have shown that the disease may be more of a degenerative process rather than a pure inflammatory response. This study aims to explore the effect of ultrasound therapy in the treatment of plantar fasciitis, in order to provide new treatment ideas and basis for clinical practice.

Theoretical basis and literature review

Ultrasound therapy uses the propagation characteristics of ultrasound in human tissues to produce thermal effects, mechanical effects, cavitation effects, etc., to achieve the purpose of promoting local blood circulation, relieving pain, and promoting tissue repair. Ultrasound has a moderate propagation depth in human tissues, can directly act on the lesion site, and have a therapeutic effect on deep tissues.

Previous researchers have conducted a lot of research on the treatment of plantar fasciitis, including drug therapy, physical therapy, rehabilitation training, etc. Among them, ultrasound therapy, as a non-invasive physical therapy, has received widespread attention due to its non-invasive, safe and effective characteristics. However, there are still some gaps in current research, such as the optimal treatment parameters of ultrasound therapy (such as frequency, intensity, treatment time, etc.) have not been clarified, and the combined application effect of ultrasound therapy and other treatment methods. Therefore, this study aims to further explore the effect of ultrasound therapy in the treatment of plantar fasciitis, in order to provide new ideas and methods for clinical practice.

Research design

This study adopts a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design to compare the efficacy of ultrasound therapy and conventional physical therapy in the treatment of plantar fasciitis.

Research subjects: 100 patients with plantar fasciitis who visited the pain department of our hospital from January 2022 to January 2023 were selected as research subjects. Inclusion criteria included: age between 18 and 65 years old, clinical diagnosis of plantar fasciitis, and pain duration of more than 4 weeks. Exclusion criteria included: foot fracture, history of foot surgery, severe neurological disease, etc.

Data source and collection method: The research data came from the baseline data of the patients, observation records during treatment, and follow-up data after treatment. Baseline data included age, gender, course of disease, pain severity, etc.; observation records during treatment included the number of treatments, treatment time, adverse reactions, etc.; follow-up data after treatment included pain severity, functional recovery, quality of life, etc. The pain severity was evaluated using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), and the functional recovery was evaluated using the Patient-Specific Functional Scale (PSFS).

Treatment method: The patients were randomly divided into two groups, with 50 cases in each group. The control group received conventional physical therapy, including hot compress, massage, traction, etc. The experimental group added ultrasound therapy on the basis of conventional physical therapy. Ultrasound therapy uses a continuous wave with a frequency of 1MHz and an intensity of 1.0W/cm². The treatment time is 20 minutes each time, 3 times a week, and a total of 4 weeks of treatment.

Result analysis

After 4 weeks of treatment, the pain level and functional recovery of both groups of patients improved. However, the improvement of the experimental group was significantly better than that of the control group.

Pain level: Before treatment, there was no significant difference in the VAS scores of the two groups of patients. At 1 week, 4 weeks, and 8 weeks after treatment, the VAS scores of the experimental group were significantly lower than those of the control group (P<0.05). This shows that ultrasound therapy can more effectively relieve the pain of patients with plantar fasciitis.

Functional recovery: Before treatment, there was no significant difference in the PSFS scores of the two groups of patients. At 4 weeks and 8 weeks after treatment, the PSFS scores of the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group (P<0.05). This shows that ultrasound therapy can more effectively promote the functional recovery of patients with plantar fasciitis.

Quality of life: Although this study did not directly evaluate the quality of life, it can be inferred that the quality of life of the experimental group patients may also be significantly improved based on the improvement of pain level and functional recovery.

Conclusion

The results of this study show that ultrasound therapy has significant efficacy in the treatment of plantar fasciitis, and can more effectively relieve patients' pain and promote functional recovery. As a non-invasive physical therapy, ultrasound therapy has the advantages of safety, effectiveness, and ease of operation, and is worthy of further promotion and application in clinical practice.

However, this study still has some limitations, such as small sample size and short treatment time. Future studies can further explore the optimal treatment parameters of ultrasound therapy and the combined application effect of ultrasound therapy and other treatment methods. In addition, it is also possible to consider combining ultrasound therapy with rehabilitation training, drug therapy, etc., in order to achieve better therapeutic effects. In short, ultrasound therapy provides new ideas and methods for the treatment of plantar fasciitis and has broad application prospects.