Abstract
Plantar fasciitis affects nearly 1 million persons in the United States at any one
time. Conservative therapies have been reported to successfully treat 90% of plantar
fasciitis cases; however, for the remaining cases, only invasive therapeutic solutions
remain. This investigation studied newly emerging technology, low-level laser therapy.
From September 2011 to June 2013, 69 subjects were enrolled in a placebo-controlled,
randomized, double-blind, multicenter study that evaluated the clinical utility of
low-level laser therapy for the treatment of unilateral chronic fasciitis. The volunteer
participants were treated twice a week for 3 weeks for a total of 6 treatments and
were evaluated at 5 separate time points: before the procedure and at weeks 1, 2,
3, 6, and 8. The pain rating was recorded using a visual analog scale, with 0 representing
“no pain” and 100 representing “worst pain.” Additionally, Doppler ultrasonography
was performed on the plantar fascia to measure the fascial thickness before and after
treatment. Study participants also completed the Foot Function Index. At the final
follow-up visit, the group participants demonstrated a mean improvement in heel pain
with a visual analog scale score of 29.6 ± 24.9 compared with the placebo subjects,
who reported a mean improvement of 5.4 ± 16.0, a statistically significant difference
(p < .001). Although additional studies are warranted, these data have demonstrated
that low-level laser therapy is a promising treatment of plantar fasciitis.
Level of Clinical Evidence
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 11, 2015
Footnotes
Financial Disclosure: Erchonia Corp. provided the MLS laser and funding for a research assistant.
Conflict of Interest: Michael J. Coughlin and Kerry Zang are paid consultants for Erchonia Corp.
Identification
Copyright
© 2015 American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
