Piezowave for Treatment on Lateral and Medial Elbow Tendinopathies

April 30, 2020 updated by: Johns Hopkins University

Piezowave Myofascial Acoustic Compression Therapy on Lateral and Medial Tendinopathies

Within the outpatient rehabilitation clinic, therapists provide therapeutic interventions to treat patients with various tendinopathies, including lateral and medial epicondylosis. Current conservative treatment includes immobilization for forced rest of the inflamed tendons and muscles, as well as mobilizations to focus stimulation of synovial fluid, provide movement to nourish cartilage, promote periarticular extensibility, and provide sensory and proprioceptive input. Musculoskeletal disorders can accompany both local and referred pain patterns that need to be assessed and treated. When an acute trauma or repetitive micro-trauma occurs, that may result in decreased range of motion and increased pain causing the onset of weakness and function of the affected extremity. An alternative approach is through the provision of Piezowave Myofascial Acoustic Compression Therapy (MyACT), which provides mechanical stimuli delivery to improve circulation and provide relief of pain. The focused sound waves produced by the Piezowave MyACT device are classified by a pressure surge, which is followed by a drop in pressure and a brief negative pressure phase low energy/low pressure application. It is this transformation of mechanical stimuli into biochemical signals, or mechanotransduction, which yields the treatment of myofascial and musculoskeletal pain. There is currently limited research to support the benefit in regards to increased function and decreased pain when the Piezowave MyACT is used for the treatment of lateral and medial epicondylosis. Of the limited research available, treatment with non-invasive shock wave therapy, complications are low and effect is achieved in most cases within three to five sessions.

If Piezowave Myofascial Acoustic Compression Therapy (MyACT)) is applied as treatment for symptoms of lateral and medical elbow tendinopathies, then the patient will experience increased function demonstrated by Quick DASH (Disability of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand) score and decreased pain demonstrated by subjective reporting on the numeric pain rating scale.

Study Overview

Study Type

Interventional

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 86 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Tendinopathy symptoms referred for occupational therapy by physician.
  • Positive provocation tests

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Contraindications for shock wave

    • Infections
    • Tumor tissue
    • Blood clotting disorder
    • Blood thinning medication use
    • Pregnancy
    • Lung tissue in focal area
    • Head
    • Air-containing organs
    • Elbow fracture
  • History of corticosteroid injections less than eight weeks/two months, prior to initiation of occupation therapy treatment for lateral or medial epicondylosis. The goal would be to have elimination of any residual benefit from the injection.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Piezowave
  • Initiation of Piezowave MyACT treatment to include parameters from the user manual
  • Set for frequency of five pulses per second
  • Delivery of 500 to 1000 pulses over multiple injured area sites, not to exceed 4000 pulses per session
  • Intensity ranging from 0.1 to 18 millijoule per square millimeter. This intensity if energy flux as the rate of transfer of the energy through the surface of the tissue is applied.
  • Focal transducer
  • Head size will be variable based on depth of tissue treated. The user manual will be consulted for depth of penetration recommendations
Piezowave Myofascial Acoustic Compression Therapy (MyACT), which provides mechanical stimuli delivery to improve circulation and provide relief of pain. The focused sound waves produced by the Piezowave MyACT device are classified by a pressure surge, which is followed by a drop in pressure and a brief negative pressure phase low energy/low pressure application. It is this transformation of mechanical stimuli into biochemical signals, or mechanotransduction, which yields the treatment of myofascial and musculoskeletal pain

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Function as demonstrated by Quick score
Time Frame: The Quick score will be completed by the participant at the initial evaluation or session and repeated at visit 10 or at day 30 day post-intervention, which ever comes first.
The Quick (Disability of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand) score will assess participant report of function based on daily activities by creating an upper extremity functional score. There are 11 questions that ask the participant to rate their difficulty or limitations and pain in order to complete specific tasks. Each questions will ask the participant to select one of the five measures from no difficulty, not limited at all or none to unable, extreme and I can't sleep, with the latter of the measures indicating decreased upper extremity function. A maximum total score of 55 and minimum of 11.
The Quick score will be completed by the participant at the initial evaluation or session and repeated at visit 10 or at day 30 day post-intervention, which ever comes first.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Pain level as demonstrate by the numeric pain rating scale
Time Frame: The participant will be asked to report their pain will be completed by the participant at the initial evaluation or session and repeated at visit 10 or at day 30 day post-intervention, which ever comes first.
The participant will document their pain level as assessed by the numeric pain rating scale from 0 to 10. 0 represents no pain and 10 represents the greatest level of pain.
The participant will be asked to report their pain will be completed by the participant at the initial evaluation or session and repeated at visit 10 or at day 30 day post-intervention, which ever comes first.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Christa Schestag, MSOT, Outpatient Rehabilitation Services

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Anticipated)

April 1, 2020

Primary Completion (Anticipated)

March 1, 2021

Study Completion (Anticipated)

March 1, 2021

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 22, 2020

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 22, 2020

First Posted (Actual)

January 27, 2020

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

May 4, 2020

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 30, 2020

Last Verified

April 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

No

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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