Extracorporeal shockwave therapy for the treatment of lower limb intermittent claudication: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial (the SHOCKWAVE 1 trial).

ABSTRACT:

Background

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) has a population prevalence of 4.6% with intermittent claudication (IC) presenting as one of the earliest and most common symptoms. PAD has detrimental effects on patients' walking ability in terms of maximum walking distance (MWD) and pain-free walking distance (PFWD). Research has suggested extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) may induce angiogenesis in treated tissue; therefore, our objective is to assess the tolerability and efficacy of ESWT as a novel treatment of intermittent claudication.

Methods/design

Patients with unilateral claudication will be randomised to receive either ESWT (PiezoWave 2 shockwave system) or sham treatment to the calf muscle bulk three times per week for 3 weeks. All patients are blinded to treatm

SUBMITTER: Cayton T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5340013 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature