Shockwave therapy is an advanced, non-invasive treatment that helps speed up recovery from stubborn injuries and chronic pain. Using targeted sound waves, it stimulates healing, reduces inflammation, and encourages the body to repair damaged tissue.
At Waldegrave Clinic, we use shockwave therapy to treat conditions like tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, and persistent joint or muscle pain. It’s a great option for people who have tried other treatments without success and need an extra boost to kickstart the healing process.
With no downtime and long-lasting benefits, shockwave therapy is a powerful tool for getting you back to full strength—so you can move better, feel better, and stay pain-free.
Shockwave therapy works through the application of mechanical pressure pulses that causes cavitations and bubbles to form in the tendon or soft tissue area– typically areas where the blood supply is not able to reach effectively.
The pulses ‘disrupt’ the tendon or soft tissue, to trigger the body to start to heal itself – a process called revascularization. This makes the tendon more durable, and able to regenerate quickly – bringing better results over the longer term.
It is a safe treatment and an alternative to consider if you are possibly facing the option of a cortisone injection.
Shockwave therapy is for chronic long term injuries that cause serious pain. Typically these are:
Shockwave therapy is popular with tennis players, runners, athletes, footballers and rowers.
For a sports person there is nothing worse than when you find yourself not responding to a treatment pathway – this means you cannot train or perform the sport you love.
Usually this scenario happens when a muscle or tendon has been overused. With tendon injuries the blood supply is generally weak, so the body is not naturally repairing.
It is at the point when response to manual treatment has plateaued that we would recommend Shockwave therapy.
Patients are advised to refrain from physical activity that may involve the treated region for 48 hours following activity.
They are different things – ultrasound is for lower grade pain to help reduce inflammation – it has no repair function.
Waldegrave Clinic Director Tom Greenway first came across Shockwave therapy when working at the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London and at the European Olympics in Baku.
Working with the radiology and therapy team at the Games, scans taken of injuries treated before and after Shockwave treatment showed great changes in the vascularization of the tissues treated.
Tom could immediately see how Shockwave therapy would prove a far better option for patients with chronic injuries, where the treatment pathway had plateaued and they were faced with the option of a cortisone injection.
The Shockwave therapy machine at the clinic is the highly reputable Swiss Dolorcast EMS. It has been a substantial investment that will reap rewards for the many sports injury patients that we treat at the clinic, and who we meet when working out on location on the professional sports field.
With a reported clinical success rate of 77% – 80% worldwide, Shockwave therapy is fast becoming a treatment of choice for professional practitioners.
