What is Shockwave Therapy (ESWT)?

Shockwave therapy or Extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) uses shockwaves produced outside the skin (extracorporeal) which safely pass through skin into injured parts of the body to provide pain relief and rehabilitation of function. Shockwaves are mechanical, audible, low-energy sound waves and impulses of energy which produce micro traumas to specific damaged tissues. The resulting procedure causes an increased blood flow to the treatment area which accelerates the body’s healing process and decreases local pain factors. Shockwaves can also provide benefits in breaking down calcification & disorganised tissue.

Physiology of ESWT

Shockwaves are sound waves that have specific physical characteristics, including nonlinearity, high peak pressure followed by low tensile amplitude, short rise time, and short duration (10 ms). They have a single pulse, a wide frequency range (0-20 MHz), and a high pressure amplitude (0-120 MPa)

These characteristics produce a positive and negative phase of shockwave. The positive phase produces direct mechanical forces, whereas the negative phase generates cavitation and gas bubbles that subsequently implode at high speeds, generating a second wave of shockwaves.^[6]

In comparison to ultrasound waves, the shockwave peak pressure is approximately 1000 times greater than the peak pressure of an ultrasound wave.