Are you struggling with heel pain, Achilles tendinitis or jumpers knee?

Does this describe you?

• YOU’ve been running a lot lately and now you’re starting to feel a stiff achilles in the morning…
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• You’re knee is sore walking down stairs and your gp has told you it’s jumper’s knee…
• YOU’RE CONCERNED ABOUT WHAT YOU’VE DONE…
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• It feels like you have a pebble in your shoe when you walk…
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• YOU’ve been told you have tennis elbow and just lifting a kettle is agony…
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• YOU get pain in your bottom when you sit down all day…

Then you have come to the right place.

At Wandsworth Physiotherapy and Osteopathy our expert therapists in Wandsworth Town, Clapham Junction and Battersea Nine Elms will assess your tendon problem and put together a bespoke treatment plan to get you quickly out of pain.

Shockwave therapy, also known as Extracorporeal Shockwave therapy (ESWT)  or radial shockwave therapy (rESWT) is a safe and effective non-surgical treatment for many soft tissue disorders. ESWT delivers impulses of energy (shockwaves) to painful and damaged tissues to promote healing and regeneration.

Most of the scientific research, including many of The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines supports the use of ESWT for tendon pain and some other soft tissues problems including:

• Plantar fasciitis
• Achilles tendinopathy
• Medial tibial stress syndrome (shin splints)
• Patella tendinopathy
• High hamstring tendinopathy
• Gluteus medius tendinopathy (Lateral hip pain)
• De Quervains tenosynovitis (mummy thumb)
• Tennis elbow
• Golfers elbow
• Calcific tendinopathy in the shoulder
• Frozen shoulder

ESWT works by creating microtrauma to the damaged painful tissues, this increases blood flow to the affected area, stimulates cell regeneration and healing, and can also stimulate local chemical release in the painful tissues that desensitise the nerves that are causing pain. 

ESWT is a very successful line of treatment for people with tendon problems and scientific research is showing a very high success rate especially when shockwave is combined with physiotherapy and exercise.

If you are suffering from one of the conditions listed above you may be recommended to combine shockwave with your ongoing physiotherapy or osteopathy. A shockwave session is 15 minutes long, in which approximately 2500 shockwaves are applied to your injured body part.

Some ultrasound gel is applied to the skin and the shockwave probe is then applied to the body to deliver the shockwaves. These pulses of energy are uncomfortable but should not be overly painful.

Your first shockwave treatment will start on a low pressure, building up to a level that you can tolerate. In each subsequent session the aim is to increase the pressure thus creating more of a therapeutic effect.

We recommend six sessions of ESWT over six weeks for most tendon problems. You may not experience an immediate improvement in your symptoms and you may also notice a brief increase in pain. However you should start to notice an improvement in your symptoms during the 6 week treatment process, with results most noticeable up to 90 days after your course of shockwave has finished.

We do not offer individual sessions of shockwave as a single session will not be very beneficial, instead we offer packages of 3 or 6 shockwave therapy sessions. Check out the prices of a package of 3 or 6 shockwave sessions here, we recommend that for maximal therapeutic effect these sessions are used over 3 of 6 weeks. You can self-fund your shockwave treatment or speak to your medical insurer as most insurance companies do cover this type of treatment alongside your physiotherapy treatment.

A meta-analysis of 106 studies has shown that there are no adverse effects to shockwave other than discomfort from the treatment itself. It has also been shown to be as or more effective than steroid injection, with no risk of tendon rupture post shockwave (whereas risk of rupture increases post steroid injection).

You can book online for shockwave, you will be directed to book and pay for either a block of 3 or 6 sessions of shockwave by your therapist. You may also know that you would like shockwave treatment and you can call our reception team and block book your sessions of shockwave.