SynthesisMedicine2018
Clinical effects of extracorporeal shock-wave therapy and ultrasound-guided local corticosteroid injections for plantar fasciitis in adults: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Synthesis in Medicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 49 citations in OpenAlex.
- Comparison of extracorporeal shockwave therapy, ultrasound therapy, and corticosteroid injections for treatment of lateral epicondylitis: an umbrella review of meta-analyses.Journal of orthopaedics and traumatology : official journal of the Italian Society of Orthopaedics and Traumatology · 2025Pooled it
- Efficacy and tolerability of extracorporeal shock wave therapy in patients with plantar fasciopathy: a systematic review with meta-analysis and meta-regression.European journal of physical and rehabilitation medicine · 2024Pooled it
- An assessment of plantar fascia with ultrasound findings in patients with plantar fasciitis: a systematic review.Journal of ultrasound · 2023Pooled it
- Comparison of extracorporeal shock wave therapy targeting the posterior myofascial chain and plantar tenderness points versus plantar tenderness points alone in patients with plantar fasciitis: a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Trial
- Chronic plantar fasciitis: which is more effective? Prolotherapy/extracorporeal shock wave therapy? A randomized controlled trial.Archives of orthopaedic and trauma surgery · 2025Trial
- The Efficacy of Focused Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy and Ultrasound Therapy in the Treatment of Calcar Calcanei: A Randomized Study.BioMed research international · 2023Trial
- Myofascial points treatment with focused extracorporeal shock wave therapy (f-ESWT) for plantar fasciitis: an open label randomized clinical trial.European journal of physical and rehabilitation medicine · 2022Trial
- Ultrasound-guided botulinum toxin injection in patients with chronic plantar fasciitis: comparison of plantar fascia origin injection and the babcock method-a randomized controlled trial.Future science OA · 2026Article
- Efficacy of Ultrasound-Guided Tibial Nerve Block Combined With Shock Wave in the Treatment of Plantar Fasciitis: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Pain research & management · 2026Article
- The Pathomechanism and Current Treatments for Chronic Interstitial Cystitis and Bladder Pain Syndrome.Biomedicines · 2024Review
- Pain relief and functional improvement provided by extracorporeal shock wave therapy in plantar fasciitis is better than corticosteroid injection and kinesio taping: A randomized trial.Turkish journal of physical medicine and rehabilitation · 2023Article
- What is the landscape of evidence about the safety of physical agents used in physical medicine and rehabilitation? A scoping review.BMJ open · 2023Article
- The Efficacy of Microfracture Combined with Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy for Treating Osteochondral Lesion of the Talus and the Quality of Regenerated Cartilage: A Retrospective Cohort Study and MRI Assessment.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- Do the presence, size, and shape of plantar calcaneal spurs have any significance in terms of pain and treatment outcomes in patients with plantar fasciitis?Turkish journal of medical sciences · 2023Article
- A Systematic Review of Systematic Reviews on the Epidemiology, Evaluation, and Treatment of Plantar Fasciitis.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Radial Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy versus Ultrasound Therapy in Adult Patients with Idiopathic Scoliosis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2021Article
- Efficacy of a single botulinum toxin A injection for distal tarsal tunnel syndrome: A protocol for a randomized, double-blinded trial.Contemporary clinical trials communications · 2021Article
- Effects of extracorporeal shock wave therapy in patients with knee osteoarthritis: A cohort study protocol.Medicine · 2020Article
- Analgesic effect of extracorporeal shock-wave therapy for frozen shoulder: A randomized controlled trial protocol.Medicine · 2020Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe argument on whether extracorporeal shock-wave therapy (ESWT) and corticosteroid injections (CSIs) exert an equivalent pain control or which is the better treatment for plantar fasciitis (PF) in adults remains to be resolved. It is important and necessary to conduct a meta-analysis to make a relatively more credible and overall assessment about which treatment method performs better pain control in treatment of PF in adults.
methodsFrom the inception to July 2018, the Embase, PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library electronic databases were searched for all relevant studies. Only randomized controlled trials (RCTs) focusing on comparing ESWT and CSI therapies in PF cases in adults were included. The primary outcome measure was visual analog scale (VAS) reduction, whereas the secondary outcomes included treatment success rate, recurrence rate, function scores, and adverse events.
resultsNine RCTs involving 658 cases were included in this meta-analysis. In the present study, meta-analysis showed that high-intensity ESWT had superior pain relief and success rates relative to the CSI group within 3 months, but the ESWT with low intensity was slightly inferior to CSI for efficacy within 3 months. In addition, patients with CSI may tend to increase the need for the analgesic and more adverse events may be associated with the ESWT. However, the ESWT and CSI present similar recurrent rate and functional outcomes.
conclusionOur analysis showed that the pain relief and success rates were related to energy intensity levels, with the high-intensity ESWT had the highest probability of being the best treatment within 3 months, followed by CSI, and low-intensity ESWT. More high-quality RCTs with long-term follow-up time are needed to further compare the differences of CSI and ESWT for adults with PF.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.