RelivaHow we treatShockwave therapy
Treatment
Shockwave therapy
Acoustic pulses delivered by hand across a sore area. We use it where pain has settled into a tendon attachment or a knot of muscle and has stopped shifting with rest.
- The machine
- MASTERPULS R-SW100STORZ MEDICAL, Switzerland
- In a session
- 5–15 minutesPer area treated
- One session
- 24,000 FtInside a course, after the examination
What the pulse does once it is in the tissue
The handpiece fires a compressed-air pulse into the skin, and that pulse carries on through the tissue underneath as a pressure wave. Tissue that has been sore for months is not the same as healthy tissue: it carries less blood flow, and more thickened, disorganised fibre. The wave disturbs both.
Blood flow through the treated area rises and stays raised for a while after the session, and the tissue gets worked mechanically in a way that no amount of resting it reproduces. That is the mechanism. What it does for your particular pain depends on what is causing that pain, which is the reason the examination comes before any of this.
Radial, and what that changes for you
Shockwave comes in two forms, and clinics rarely say which one they own.
- Focused
- The energy converges at a set depth, onto a point about the size of a coin. Precise, and useful when the problem is small and deep and you already know exactly where it is.
- Radial — what we have
- The energy spreads outward from the applicator, strongest near the skin and weaker as it travels. It covers an area rather than a point.
For pain spread across the upper back, running along a tendon, or sitting in a band of tight muscle, an area is what you want treated. The therapist works the head across the whole sore region, watching your face and asking, and takes the pressure up in steps rather than setting it once at the start.
The second handpiece vibrates rather than strikes
The R-SW100 carries a second handpiece, V-ACTOR, which vibrates rather than strikes. It runs from 1 to 50 Hz and reaches muscle below the surface. It gets used before shockwave to warm and loosen a region, after it to settle the tissue down, or on its own where a full shockwave pulse would be more than the tissue needs that day.
Whether your session uses one head or both is the therapist's call at the visit.
Where it goes on the body
- Tendon attachments. Where tendon meets bone — at the elbow, the shoulder, the hip, the heel.
- Trigger points. The small, hard, exquisitely tender spots inside a muscle that refer pain somewhere else.
- Fascia. The sheet that wraps and connects muscle, where it has thickened and lost its glide.
- Muscle that has stayed tight. Across the back, neck and trapezius, after months of the same load.
What is actually driving your pain is worked out at the examination. Shockwave is one of the things a course can be built from, alongside TECAR and the movement work — not a treatment you pick off a list and book.
How it feels, and what you do afterwards
Firm, fast tapping is what most people call it. At the tender spots it is uncomfortable, and that is generally where it is doing something. It stops being uncomfortable the moment you say so, because the pressure comes down and goes back up as you go rather than being fixed at the start.
You get up and carry on with your day. Some soreness over the following day or two is ordinary. Mention it at the next visit even so, because it is one of the things that changes the setting.
What the machine can do
- Shockwave pressure
- 0.3–5.0 bar
- Shockwave frequency
- 1–21 Hz
- V-ACTOR vibration
- 1–50 Hz
- Manufacturer
- STORZ MEDICAL, Switzerland
Those are the ranges the machine works across. Where inside them your session sits — the pressure, the frequency, how much goes into each area, how far apart the visits fall — is set by the doctor after examining you, and moved as the course goes on. It is not something to settle from a web page.
What we check before the first session
Shockwave does not suit every patient or every part of the body. The reason we ask is to have the alternative ready before you arrive, not to turn you away at the door. Tell the doctor at the examination if any of this applies to you:
- You are pregnant
- You take an anticoagulant, or you have a clotting disorder
- There is an infection, an open wound or a skin condition over the area
- You have a tumour, or you are being treated for one
- You have a pacemaker or another implanted electronic device
- You have had a joint replacement or other metalwork near the area
Some of these rule shockwave out. Others only change where on the body it can be used, or move your course onto TECAR and guided movement instead. Either way, you leave the examination with a plan written down.
What it costs
- One session, one area
- 24,000 Ft
- Each further area in the same session
- 11,000 Ft
- Pain & Movement Check45–60 minutes with a doctor. Where every course starts.
- 42,000 Ft
Shockwave sits inside a course rather than being sold on its own or as a pre-paid block. How many visits your case needs and what the whole course comes to are written out at the examination, and you leave with that on paper before anything is booked.
The other device in the room
TECAR therapy →Questions about shockwave
Can I book a shockwave session on its own?
No. Whether shockwave suits your case, where on the body it goes and at what setting all come out of the examination, so that is where everyone starts. It also means nobody pays for a session that was never going to be the right treatment.
How many sessions will I need?
The doctor decides that after examining you, and writes it into your plan along with what the whole course costs. Anyone quoting you a number before they have seen you is guessing.
Does it hurt?
It is uncomfortable at the tender spots and unremarkable everywhere else. The pressure comes down the moment you say so and goes back up when you are ready, which is why the therapist keeps asking rather than setting it once.
Can I train or run afterwards?
Ask at the visit. Loading the treated tissue hard in the days straight after a session is usually the thing to hold off on, and the therapist will tell you what is fine and for how long, for your case rather than in general.
Is this the same machine used for kidney stones?
No. That is a different class of device, used at far higher energies inside a urology department. Ours is a musculoskeletal unit that works on muscle, tendon and fascia.
Ready when you are
Start with the examination.Every course begins there.
One hour with a doctor. What is driving the pain, how far you move before it starts, and the course written out — which programme, how many visits, and what it costs.
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