Unchanged c-Fos expression after extracorporeal shock wave therapy: an experimental investigation in rats.

Background: Despite the extensive use of extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) in the therapy of chronic tendopathies, the biological mechanisms of its antinociceptive effects are still unclear.

Methods: In this study we addressed the question of whether the clinically described, long-lasting effect of ESWT is mediated by changes in the activity of spinal cord neurones. As a marker for neuronal activity which is also able to interfere with the molecular expression pattern of neurones, the expression of the inducible transcription factor c-Fos was analysed in the animal model of the rat.

Exact focusing of extracorporeal shock wave therapy for calcifying tendinopathy.

A controlled prospective randomized study was designed to analyze the effect of extracorporeal shock wave therapy on calcifying tendinopathy of the shoulder focused on the calcified area or the origin of the supraspinatus tendon. Fifty patients were included in the study and were treated with a Storz Minilith Sl-1 shock wave generator. The first group of patients received 4000 impulses (positive energy flux density, 0.

No influence of low-energy extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) on spinal nociceptive systems.

The analgesic effects of high-energy extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) were discovered by chance during its application for urolithiasis and for bone pseudarthrosis. Despite the extensive use of ESWT, the mechanisms of its antinociceptive effects are still unclear. A gate control mechanism and other antinociceptive mechanisms have been postulated.