The Effectiveness of Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy in Lower Limb Tendinopathy: A Systematic Review

Background:There is accumulating evidence for the effectiveness of extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) when treating lower limb tendinopathies including greater trochanteric pain syndrome (GTPS), patellar tendinopathy (PT), and Achilles tendinopathy (AT).Purpose:To evaluate the effectiveness of ESWT for lower limb tendinopathies.Study Design:Systematic review and meta-analysis.Methods:PubMed (Medline), Embase, Web of Knowledge, Cochrane, and CINAHL were searched from inception to February 2013 for studies of any design investigating the effectiveness of ESWT in GTPS, PT, and AT. Citation tracking was performed using PubMed and Google Scholar. Animal and non–English language studies were excluded. A quality assessment was performed by 2 independent reviewers, and effect size calculations were computed when sufficient data were provided.Results:A total of 20 studies were identified, with 13 providing sufficient data to compute effect size calculations. The energy level, number of impulses, number of se...