Department of Physical Therapy, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
Physiotherapy Department, Faculty of Applied Medical Science, Jazan University, Jazan, Saudi Arabia.
PeerJ. 2024 Mar 22;12:e17147. doi: 10.7717/peerj.17147. eCollection 2024.
Ultrasound therapy is one of the preferred conservative treatments for patients with plantar fasciitis. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of therapeutic ultrasound in decreasing pain intensity and improving functional disability in patients with plantar fasciitis.
Five randomised control trials (RCT) were selected based on an electronic search in PubMed, Trip Database and PEDro. To be included in the systematic review, the study should be an RCT which investigated the effectiveness of therapeutic ultrasound conducted in patients with plantar fasciitis with pain intensity and functional disability as outcome measures. Only studies published in peer-reviewed journals written in the English language were included. The quality of the selected studies was measured by the PEDro scale.
All the included studies showed that ultrasound therapy is beneficial in reducing pain score and improving functional disability, except one study did not recommend using ultrasound therapy for plantar fasciitis. Moreover, regarding another outcome measure, two studies found that ultrasound therapy reduces thickness and tenderness in plantar fasciitis and improves static and dynamic balance.
After reviewing the five studies, this systematic review support using ultrasound therapy to decrease pain and improve functional disability in patients with plantar fasciitis.
超声疗法是治疗足底筋膜炎患者的首选保守治疗方法之一。本研究旨在评估治疗性超声在降低足底筋膜炎患者疼痛强度和改善功能障碍方面的有效性。
根据电子检索 PubMed、Trip 数据库和 PEDro，选择了 5 项随机对照试验（RCT）。为了纳入系统评价，研究应该是一项 RCT，调查了治疗性超声对足底筋膜炎患者的有效性，以疼痛强度和功能障碍为结局指标。仅纳入发表在同行评议期刊上的英文研究。使用 PEDro 量表评估选定研究的质量。
所有纳入的研究均表明超声疗法有益于降低疼痛评分和改善功能障碍，但有一项研究不建议将超声疗法用于足底筋膜炎。此外，关于另一个结局指标，两项研究发现超声疗法可减轻足底筋膜炎的厚度和压痛，并改善静态和动态平衡。
通过对 5 项研究的回顾，本系统评价支持使用超声疗法来降低足底筋膜炎患者的疼痛和改善功能障碍。
