Doan Hoa Ngan, Choo Yoo Jin, Chang Min Cheol
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Daegu 42415, Republic of Korea.
Life (Basel). 2025 Jul 15;15(7):1107. doi: 10.3390/life15071107.
The effectiveness of ultrasound (US)-guided compared with blind corticosteroid injections for the treatment of plantar fasciitis (PF) remains uncertain. This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the clinical benefits of US-guided over blind injections in patients with PF. A systematic search of PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Scopus was conducted, collecting articles published up to 20 April 2025. Randomized controlled trials comparing US-guided and blind corticosteroid injections for PF were included. The extracted outcome measures, i.e., visual analog scale (VAS), heel tenderness index (HTI), tenderness threshold (TT), and plantar fascia thickness, were assessed at short- (2-6 weeks) and long-term (≥12 weeks) follow-ups. Compared with the blind injection group, the US-guided group showed significantly greater improvement in TT at both short- and long-term follow-ups, as well as a greater reduction in plantar fascia thickness. However, no significant differences were found between the two groups in VAS and HTI scores. US-guided corticosteroid injections provide superior clinical benefits compared with blind injections in patients with PF, particularly in enhancing mechanical pain tolerance and reducing plantar fascia thickness. Nevertheless, these findings should be interpreted with caution due to the limited methodological quality of the included studies.
与盲目注射皮质类固醇相比，超声（US）引导下注射治疗足底筋膜炎（PF）的有效性仍不确定。本荟萃分析旨在评估超声引导下注射相对于盲目注射对PF患者的临床益处。我们对PubMed、Embase、Web of Science和Scopus进行了系统检索，收集截至2025年4月20日发表的文章。纳入了比较超声引导和盲目注射皮质类固醇治疗PF的随机对照试验。在短期（2 - 6周）和长期（≥12周）随访中评估提取的结局指标，即视觉模拟量表（VAS）、足跟压痛指数（HTI）、压痛阈值（TT）和足底筋膜厚度。与盲目注射组相比，超声引导组在短期和长期随访中的TT均有显著更大改善，且足底筋膜厚度减小幅度更大。然而，两组在VAS和HTI评分方面未发现显著差异。与盲目注射相比，超声引导下注射皮质类固醇为PF患者提供了更好的临床益处，特别是在提高机械性疼痛耐受性和减小足底筋膜厚度方面。尽管如此，由于纳入研究的方法学质量有限，这些结果应谨慎解读。
