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CompletedNCT05090059ESWUpdated Oct 22, 2021

Myofascial Points Treatment With Focused Extracorporeal Shock Waves (ESW)

An interventional study of Lower limb myofascial trigger points f-ESWT in Plantar Fasciitis, Myofascial Trigger Point Pain and Foot Injury, sponsored by University of Padova. Completed at 1 site in Italy. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2021-10-22.

Sponsored by University of Padova · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Registered 2 years 5 months after the study started (first participant enrolled Apr 2019, registered Sep 2021).
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
30
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Plantar fasciitis (PF) is a common cause of heel pain. Among the several conservative treatment options, Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy (ESWT) is considered the standard treatment.

Recent studies suggest that PF may be sustained by a myofascial impairment proximal to the pain area with a biomechanical disequilibrium of the entire lower limb and pelvis. Therefore, by combining the concepts of Fascial Manipulation and ESWT, the purpose of this open label randomized controlled clinical trial is to evaluate the effectiveness of the ESWT on myofascial trigger points of lower limb in a sample of subjects with PF.

Patients with PF were randomly assigned to an Experimental treatment Group (EG), treated with focused ESWT on myofascial points, and a Control Group (CG), treated with the focused ESWT traditional approach on the medial calcaneal tubercle.

Outcome measures included the Foot and Ankle Outcome Score (FAOS) and the Italian Foot Functional Index (17-iFFI).

The assessment was made before the first session(baseline-T1), immediately before the second session (T2), immediately before the third session (T3), at 1month (T4) and 4 months' follow-up (T5).

Thirty patients who satisfied inclusion and exclusion criteria were enrolled.

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Conditions studied

  • Plantar Fasciitis
  • Myofascial Trigger Point Pain
  • Foot Injury
03

In context

Fasciitis

235 studies on the registry are indexed under Fasciitis; 37 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 30 is below the median of 54 across 192 interventional studies indexed under Fasciitis.

Browse Fasciitis studies →

Lead sponsor

University of Padova is the lead sponsor of 210 studies on the registry; 42 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  • ≥ 18 years of age,
  • the presence of heel pain ≥ 3 months duration unresponsive to first-choice conservative treatments (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory and/or other analgesic drugs, exercise program, insoles),
  • specialist diagnosis of plantar fasciitis confirmed with clinical examination,
  • pain intensity ≥ 5 at the Visual Analog Scale (VAS)

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • previous ankle/foot fracture or surgery,
  • previous ankle/foot infections,
  • neurological deficits of the lower limbs,
  • diagnosis or suspect of fibromyalgia,
  • local steroid injection within the previous 3 months,
  • diabetes mellitus,
  • vascular diseases
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Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
30 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Lower limb myofascial trigger points f-ESWT group

    3 total sessions, one per week, of focused extracorporeal shockwave treatment with a frequency of 5 Hz, an energy flux density of 0.05-0.167 mJ (millijoule)/mm2 administered on 3 or 4 myofascial points (identified based on Fascial Manipulation principles), 1500 shocks per point.

    Device: Lower limb myofascial trigger points f-ESWT

  • Active comparator
    Plantar fascia insertion f-ESWT group

    3 total sessions, one per week, of focused extracorporeal shockwave treatment, with a frequency of 5 Hz, an energy flux density of 0.32 mJ(millijoule)/mm2, for a total of 2000 shocks administered on the area of the painful heel on the medial calcaneal tubercle.

    Device: Lower limb myofascial trigger points f-ESWT

Interventions

  • DeviceLower limb myofascial trigger points f-ESWT

    3 weekly sessions of focused Extracorporeal Shockwave treatment with a frequency of 5 Hz, an energy flux density of 0.05-0.167 mJ(millijoule)/mm2, administered on 3-4 myofascial lower limb trigger points (identified according to the approach of Fascial Manipulation), 1500 shocks per point.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Change in 17-Italian Foot Function Index (17-iFFI)

    Self-administered questionnaire. It consists in 17 items divided into 3 subscales: pain (5 items), disability (9 items), and limitation of activity (3 items). The items are rated on a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), from 0 to 10. A score is calculated for every subgroup of items, and then the final score is calculated by adding the subscale's scores and dividing the result by 170. The final percentage score is between 0% (best outcome) and 100% (worst outcome).

    Time frame: T1 (baseline - immediately before the first session); T2 (1 week - immediately before the second session); T3 (2 weeks - immediately before the third session); T4 (1 month follow-up); T5 (4 months follow-up)

  2. Change in Foot and Ankle Outcome Scale (FAOS)

    Self-administered questionnaire. It consists of 42 items divided in 5 subscales: pain (9 items), other symptoms (7 items), function in activities of daily living (17 items), function in sports and recreation (5 items), and foot-and-ankle related quality of life (4 items). The questions are made to be answered with qualitative terms (None, Mild, Moderate, Severe, Extreme) or temporal terms (Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Often, Always) corresponding to a numeric value, from 0 to 4. The score for each subdomain as well as the total FAOS is then calculated and normalized to a 0-100 scale, where 0% is the worst outcome and 100% the best outcome. Then, a final, global percentage score, from 0% (worst outcome) to 100% (best outcome), is given.

    Time frame: T1 (baseline - immediately before the first session); T2 (1 week - immediately before the second session); T3 (2 weeks - immediately before the third session); T4 (1 month follow-up); T5 (4 months follow-up)

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Study locations

1 site
  • Department of Neurosciences, Physical and Rehabilitation Unit, University of Padova
    Padova, 35128, Italy
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References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Undecided

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Oct 22, 2021, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05090059
Lead sponsor
University of Padova
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Oct 22, 2021
Start date
Apr 1, 2019
Primary completion
Feb 28, 2020
Completion
Feb 28, 2020
Last update
Oct 22, 2021

Oversight

FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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This study is completed, as verified in Sep 2021. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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