Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy Versus Ultrasonic Therapy on Functional Abilities in Children with Tennis Elbow a Randomized Controlled Trial, AMR A. ABO GAZYA, ABD EL AZIZ A. SHERIEF and MOHAMED A. ABD EL GHAFFAR
Abstract
Background and Purpose: Extracorporeal shock-wave therapy (ESWT) is low-to medium-energy type of shock-wave therapy. The purpose of the study was to compare the effect of extracorporeal shock wave therapy versus ultrasonic therapy in controlling the elbow pain, muscles weakness and limited range of motion due to tennis elbow in children.
Design: Randomized controlled trial.
Subjects: Thirty children with tennis elbow with the ages ranged from 12 to 16 years were randomly assigned to either group A (n=15) or group B (n=15) had participated in this study. Group A received a designed physical therapy program and ultrasonic therapy, while the group B received the same physical therapy program in addition to shock wave therapy. Both groups received treatment sessions three times per week for two successive months. The elbow pain was measured by Visual Analog Scale (VAS), range of motion of elbow joint was measured with elastic goniometr and hand grip power was measured by hand held dynamometer before as well as after application of the treatment program.
Results: The results revealed no significant differences when comparing the pre-treatment mean values of all measur-ing variables for the two groups, while significant improvement was observed in the two groups when comparing their pre and post treatment mean values. Also, significant difference was also observed when comparing the post treatment results of the two groups in favor of the study group B.
Conclusion: The results suggested that the use of ESWT for the management of tennis elbow is safe and effective, leading to a significant reduction in pain and improvement of elbow function after 8 weeks.