WELLNESS AUTHOR
AFM Team
WELLNESS
FAQ
WITH SONEX ORTHOPEDICS n AFM speaks with Dr. Ryan Sieg and Sean Vieira of Sonex Orthopedics about Shockwave Therapy.
AFM: What is Shockwave Therapy and why is it a better alternative than surgery?
and the next step is sometimes surgery. The surgery for overuse injuries is not great. The benefits of Shockwave Therapy are it is non-invasive, there is no downtime, it doesn’t hurt when you are done with it, and it doesn’t require stitches or anything like that so you don’t have the risk of infection. So the risks are so much lower. It’s FDA approved and shown on hundreds of studies to be safe and efficacious for patients.
VIEIRA: Shockwave Therapy is formally called
Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy. It uses high energy acoustic waves to treat numerous musculoskeletal injuries; typically, chronic overuse injuries and osteoarthritis. It is non-invasive, considered an alternative to surgery, and FDA approved. As far as benefits over surgery, in 30 years of use and research with Shockwave Therapy, no serious or long term complication has ever been noted and there’s hundreds of studies backing its safety and efficacy — so more effective with none of the risks associated with surgery. A lot of people also really appreciate that there’s no downtime after the treatment, and most injuries only require a single treatment.
AFM: Why would a surgeon recommend a noninvasive procedure? SIEG: There are certain conditions where I definitely
recommend surgery; displaced fractures, hip fractures — things like that. However, many conditions patients have are chronic overuse injuries, so when you come in for chronic knee pain or foot pain, it is nice to have a non-invasive treatment method. There are lots of risks with surgery. You often have to be put to sleep, there can be a lot of scar tissue, and the outcomes are sometimes not that good.
SIEG: Typically for patients with chronic overuse
injuries, they have tried things like activity modification, anti-inflammatory medicines, bracing, and physical therapy. Sometimes those treatments are not effective,
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