low-energy versus middle-energy extracorporeal shockwave therapy for treating pes anserine bursitis

Introduction: pes anserine bursitis (pab) is a painful status inside the knee that may interfere with functional activities. extracorporeal shockwave therapy (eswƭ) may treat this disorder. objective: comparing the effects of low- versus middle-energy eswƭ on pain and functional activity in patients with sub-acute pab. materials and methods the study was a single-blind randomized trial. twenty-eight patients with sub-acute pab were randomly divided into two groups and received either low or middle-energy eswƭ for three weeks. the numeric pain rating scale (nprs), short-form mcgill pain questionnaire (sf-mpq), timed up and go (tug) test, and western ontario and mcmaster universities index (womac) were evaluated before and 2 and 3 weeks after the intervention. results: a significant improvement was observed for low-energy eswt in terms of nprs (p=0.001), sf-mpq (p<0.001), womac (p<0.001), and tug (p<0.001) 3 weeks after the intervention. also, a significant improvement was observed following middle-energy eswt application on nprs (p=0.003), sf-mpq (p<0.001), womac (p<0.001), and tug (p<0.001) 3 weeks after the intervention. a similar trend was observed between study time points and for all variables in each group. the only exception was the tug, which showed no improvement between 2 and 3 weeks after the intervention for each study group. a significant improvement was observed in the nprs between the two groups after 2 weeks (p=0.001) and 3 weeks (p=0.006), both favoring the middle-energy eswt application. conclusion: low- and middle-energy eswt can effectively improve pain, functional activity, and mobility in patients with pab.