Ultrasoundis a passive modality, meaning a treatment your physcial therapist administers. It is a supplement to the primary treatment (eg, therapeutic stretching, exercise). Ultrasoundcan help relax tight musclesthat are sore, and warms musclesand soft tissues, which increases circulation that helps healing.
Does ultrasound therapy really work?
Mar 28, 2022 · Ultrasound can provide deep heating to soft tissue structures in the body. Deep heating tendons, muscles, or ligaments could have the following benefits: Increase circulation to tissues Speed the healing process Decrease pain Increase elasticity Deep heating can increase the "stretchiness" of muscles and tendons that may be tight.
What are the benefits of therapeutic ultrasound?
Mar 18, 2022 · In addition, heating may also help to reduce pain and muscle spasm and promote the healing process. Effects on the inflammatory and repair processes: One of the greatest proposed benefits of ultrasound therapy is that it is thought to reduce the healing time of certain soft tissue injuries.
What are side effects of ultra therapy?
Oct 13, 2020 · muscle ultrasound is a valid screening tool for neuromuscular disease. 1 , 2 , 3 with ultrasound we are able to detect pathological changes in neuromuscular disease that reflect the fatty replacement and fibrosis of affected muscles. 4 it is a patient‐friendly and non‐invasive technique, that can easily be used in an outpatient setting and at the …
What are the contraindications of ultrasound?
More recently, the use of therapeutic ultrasound at lower intensities (0.5-1W/cm 2 ), in conjunction with other treatment modalities, has been used in both the home and the clinical setting to treat tendon, ligament, and muscle injuries. 2, 9 - 15 LITUS has been shown to alter tissue biomechanical properties, 16 improve collagen alignment, 17, 18 and stimulate cell …
How does ultrasound affect muscles?
Ultrasound at higher intensities creates a deep heat. This heat may help to ease muscle spasms, relax and warm muscles, and increase muscle elasticity before stretching and exercise. Ultrasound may also act on the cells to promote healing.
How do ultrasounds promote muscle healing?
Ultrasound therapy will cause your blood vessels to increase in size and therefore increase the blood flow. Increased blood flow means more nutrients will be delivered to the area of your injury while waste is carried away. This ultimately enhances the healing process.
Does ultrasound therapy work for muscle pain?
The sound waves, or ultrasound rays, penetrate within the body generating heat increasing blood flow, and relaxing muscles and connective tissues thereby reducing pain and muscle spasms. The stimulation of these tissues in this way encourages repair and can greatly reduce the healing time of certain injuries.
How does ultrasound treat muscle injuries?
Soothing Strains & Sprains with Ultrasound Therapy Sound waves can expedite healing by increasing temperature and blood flow to the injured area. Furthermore, the vibration and warmth created in these tissues draws blood to the area. As a result, this encourages healing cells to migrate to the site of the injury.
Does ultrasound help inflammation?
Ultrasound (US) therapy is used to reduce pain and inflammation and to accelerate healing after soft tissue injury.
Can ultrasound therapy break up scar tissue?
One of the many benefits of ultrasound therapy is breaking up scar tissue caused by injuries or surgery. Scar tissue can cause pain and restrict joint movement. Ultrasound helps by using high-frequency sound waves to break the fibres of the scar tissue down into smaller fragments.Nov 2, 2015
How many times a day can you use ultrasound therapy?
Commonly the treatment lasts 5 to 10 minutes, and it's typically not performed more than once per day.Nov 27, 2018
Does ultrasound help a pinched nerve?
Diagnostic tests for a pinched nerve Usually, imaging such as ultrasound or MRI is used to find the cause of pressure on the nerve. Increasingly, ultrasound is seen as more valuable as it can detect pinched nerve changes such as swelling of the nerve.Sep 25, 2021
How often should you do ultrasound therapy?
According to Rosenzweig, “Therapists use ultrasound anywhere from six to 12 sessions – it's part of the patient's therapy, so therapists might do it for five minutes, then perhaps twice a week anywhere from thee weeks to six weeks.Jul 27, 2009
Will ultrasound help a torn ligament?
Background: Ruptured medial collateral ligaments are capable of healing over time, but biomechanical and biochemical properties remain inferior to normal tissue. Low-intensity ultrasound may improve healing. Hypothesis: Medial collateral ligaments treated with ultrasound will demonstrate superior healing.
How Does Ultrasound Work?
Inside your PT's ultrasound unit is a small crystal. When an electrical charge is applied to this crystal, it vibrates rapidly, creating piezoelect...
How Is Ultrasound applied?
Ultrasound is performed with a machine that has an ultrasound transducer (sound head). A small amount of gel is applied to the particular body part...
Contraindications to Using Ultrasound
There are some instances where you should not use ultrasound at all. These contraindications to ultrasound may include: 1. Over open wounds 2. Over...
What Does Ultrasound Feel like?
While you are receiving an ultrasound treatment, you will most likely not feel anything happening, except perhaps a slight warming sensation or tin...
Common Injuries Treated With Ultrasound
Usually, orthopedic injuries are treated with ultrasound. These may include: 1. Bursitis 2. Tendonitis 3. Muscle strains and tears 4. Frozen should...
Caution During Ultrasound
If you are going to physical therapy and are getting an ultrasound, you should know that many studies have found that ultrasound offers little bene...
What is ultrasound used for?
It can also be used to inject drugs into tissues ( phonophoresis ), or to violently vibrate the tip of an invasive probe ( lithotripsy, usually used for gall stones).
What is ESWT ultrasound?
Many concerns about the widespread usage of therapeutic ultrasound, especially extracorporeal shockwave therapy ( ESWT) Ultrasound therapy ( US) is the use of sound waves above the range of human hearing 1 2 to treat injuries like muscle strains or runner’s knee.
What are trigger points in muscle tissue?
Quick muscle knot orientation: So-called “muscle knots” — AKA trigger points — are small unexplained sore spots in muscle tissue associated with stiffness and soreness. No one doubts that they are there, but they are unexplained and controversial. They can be surprisingly intense, cause pain in confusing patterns, and they grow like weeds around other painful problems and injuries, but most healthcare professionals know little about them, so misdiagnosis is epidemic. For more information about how trigger points might be involved in your own medical history, see PainScience.com’s best-selling tutorial:
Is ultrasound therapy reliable?
At worst, there is no rational basis for US at all. Although ultrasound is almost certainly useful for some patients, some of the time, it is not a reliable or evidence-based therapy, and enjoys far more credibility than it deserves.
Is ultrasound good for medicine?
Almost everyone seems to assume that ultrasound is proven — good technological medicine — but that just doesn’t seem to be the case. There’s a whole family of “stim” therapies based on the hope that biology will work better if it’s energetically stimulated: by electricity, by laser light, by far infrared radiation.
Is ultrasound quackery?
Ultrasound is pseudo-quackery. The disconnect between the popularity of US and the more or less total lack of informative research is troubling. A handful of good studies is a joke for a therapy that is worth literally billions of dollars in the marketplace.
Why is ultrasound therapy important?
One of the greatest proposed benefits of ultrasound therapy is that it is thought to reduce the healing time of certain soft tissue injuries. Ultrasound is thought to accelerate the normal resolution time of the inflammatory process by attracting more mast cells to the site of injury.
What is ultrasound therapy?
Ultrasound Therapy. Ultrasound therapy has been used as an electrotherapy treatment modality by therapists over the last 50 years.It involves passing high frequency sound waves into soft tissue.
How are ultrasound waves produced?
Ultrasonic waves or sound waves of a high frequency that is not audible to the human ear are produced by means of mechanical vibration in the metal treatment head of the ultrasound machine. The treatment head is then moved over the surface of the skin in the region of the injury transmitting the energy into the tissues.
How does ultrasound affect collagen?
As the ultrasound waves pass from the treatment head into the skin they cause the vibration of the surrounding tissues, particularly those that contain collagen. This increased vibration leads to the production of heat within the tissue. In most cases, this cannot be felt by the patient themselves. This increase in temperature may cause an increase in the extensibility of structures such as ligaments, tendons, scar tissue, and fibrous joint capsules. In addition, heating may also help to reduce pain and muscle spasm and promote the healing process.
Why do you put ultrasound gel on your skin?
When sound waves come into contact with air it causes a dissipation of the waves, and so a special ultrasound gel is placed on the skin to ensure maximal contact between the treatment head and the surface of the skin and to provide a medium through with the sound waves can travel. Ultrasound can also be applied underwater which is also a medium ...
How long does it take for an ultrasonic to work?
This is moved continuously over the skin for approximately 3-5 mins. Treatments may be repeated 1-2 times daily in more acute injuries and less frequently in chronic cases.
Why use lower frequency?
Simply speaking lower frequency application provides a greater depth of penetration and so is used in cases where the injured tissue is suspected to be deeply situated. Conversely, higher frequency doses are used for structures that are closer to the surface of the skin.
What is therapeutic ultrasound?
Therapeutic ultrasound has been studied and used for the past seven decades to treat musculoskeletal injuries. Recently, a significant body of animal and human research has focused on the biomechanical effects of daily-applied, low intensity therapeutic ultrasound (LITUS) on soft tissue recovery. We performed a systematic review ...
What is the treatment for acute injury?
Many use the regimen of rest, ice, compression, elevation and stabilization (RICES) to treat acute injury, but are unsure what to do if the injury becomes chronic.1Whereas, many of these current treatment options address inflammation and pain management, therapeutic ultrasound can both manage pain and facilitate healing.
What is a SAM device?
The SAM device is used to reduce inflammation and pain, and accelerate the healing of soft tissues such as tendons, ligaments, and muscles. Both Exogen and SAM are non-invasive prescription-use devices that are administered and monitored by a licensed medical professional.
Does litus affect collagen?
LITUS was shown to have a beneficial effect on tendon strength and collagen synthesis following injury.
Can Litus be used for soft tissue?
Collectively, these studies are encouraging for the use of LITUS to treat soft tissue injuries in human; however, the delivery of therapeutic ultrasound has been traditionally applied in the inpatient setting, which limits both the duration of treatment and frequency of application.
Find Effective Relief For Your Pain With Ultrasound Therapy
Ultrasound therapy, a sophisticated physical recovery procedure that uses electrical energy to promote the healing process, can help you recover regardless of your level of discomfort. This treatment method can be used to manage or relieve pain, heal injuries, and improve daily activities.
What Does Ultrasound Therapy Do?
Have you ever used a heating pack to relieve back or muscle pain? This is similar, but its benefits are much deeper and last much longer.
The Difference Between Thermal and Non-Thermal Ultrasound Treatments
These therapies for healing and repairing weakened tissues in the body are divided into two categories.
So, Why Should I Consider Ultrasound Therapy?
These therapies aid in the improvement of blood supply, the relief of pain, the reduction of swelling and inflammation, and the promotion of tissue healing. As a result, ultrasound therapy can effectively treat and relieve the debilitating effects of a variety of conditions.
Ready To Find Out If Ultrasound Therapy Is Right For You?
If you are living with pain or injury, IMG Physical Therapy will help you feel like your best self again. Inquire about the this therapy treatment options we offer by contacting us today!
How does ultrasound work?
How Ultrasound Works. Therapeutic ultrasound is a treatment that has been used in physical therapy clinics for over 50 years. It provides heat to injured body parts that lie deep within your body that cannot be heated with a standard hot pack alone . Ultrasound is also thought to improve cellular function by making microscopic gas bubbles ...
What is therapeutic ultrasound?
Bottom Line. Therapeutic ultrasound is a treatment modality often used in physical therapy. It has been used historically to improve circulation and tissue healing, but research has called into question its efficacy.
Why do you need ultrasound for bursitis?
If you have an injury such as bursitis, tendonitis, or arthritis you may require physical therapy to help decrease pain and improve function. Your physical therapist may choose to apply therapeutic ultrasound to your injured body part as part of your rehabilitation program.
What is the grade of ultrasound for shoulder pain?
A 2001 review of studies for treatments for shoulder pain gave ultrasound a grade of “A” (benefit demonstrated) for the use of ultrasound in the treatment of one specific shoulder condition. This was for the treatment of calcific tendinitis in the shoulder.
Is ultrasound a treatment modality?
Ultrasound may be a treatment modality that you are exposed to during your physical therapy treatments. Research calls into question its efficacy, so if your PT does use it, be sure to understand the goals of treatment and the necessity of the treatment.
Can you use ultrasound in physical therapy?
Still, it is commonly used and you may come across it if you go to physical therapy, so you should have some idea about what it is and what it can (and can’t) do. If your PT decides to use ultrasound as part of your rehab program, you may wish to question if it is absolutely necessary for you.
Can ultrasound be used on cancer?
There are some instances where ultrasound should absolutely not be used, such as over body parts with cancer and in young children, but for the most part, it can be used safely to heat-injured parts of your body.
What are the benefits of ultrasound?
As well as heating and relaxing the muscles, ultrasound therapy breaks down scar tissue and increases local blood flow.
Why do people use ultrasound?
For the last 80 years, ultrasound therapy has been used as a non-invasive procedure to treat a wide variety of ailments. It is often used to treat swelling, particularly when the swelling is spread over a larger area than usual.
How long does ultrasound last?
In general, ultrasound therapy sessions will last no longer than 5 minutes.
What is lymph fluid?
Lymph is a clear fluid that carries white blood cells throughout our body, which fights infection, encourages healing, and removes excess fluid. These three factors combined make it a very effective way to treat swelling and inflammation, not only of the muscles, but also of the joints and ligaments.
Is ultrasound therapy safe for pregnant women?
Despite its similarity to ultrasound machines, ultrasound therapy is not suitable for issues located near the womb of a pregnant woman. The wavelengths used in this therapy are different to those used in a prenatal ultrasound, and could put the pregnancy at risk.
Does heating help with muscle pain?
However, it is usually reserved for problems with swollen muscles, particularly when time is a factor in the recovery. The heating and relaxing benefits help to alleviate muscle pain, while the increased flow to the affected area will mean that more lymph passes through.
Can ultrasound be used on other parts of the body?
However, the therapy can still be used on other parts of the body, regardless of whether or not a woman is pregnant. Ultrasound therapy may also be unsuitable for people with malignant growths, or cardiovascular issues. But again, this can depend on where the therapy is to take place on the body. Ultrasound therapy is completely unsuitable anywhere ...
Overview
Availability
- Garden-variety therapeutic US is cheap and available everywhere. The machines are small, even portable: you can buy small handheld ones. Treatment is brief and painless, and applied (indiscriminately?) to almost any common musculoskeletal problem.
Treatment
- ESWT uses much stronger sound waves shock waves!7 (Radial shock wave therapy is a bit different.8) Treatment is painfully intense and painfully pricey.9
Advantages
- On the one hand, ESWT is just a more is better version of standard US, because it is often used with the same imprecise clinical intention to stimulate/provoke tissues. On the other hand, because it was originally developed for smashing gall stones, ESWT is strong enough to actually disrupt tissue, such as calcifications in tendons which is a nice precise clinical goal and a whole …
Research
- When I started studying for this article way back in the mid-2000s, I was quite surprised by how little there was to study. Back then, every scientific paper about US pointed out there is not enough research on this topic, or at least not enough good research and not much has changed. A 2015 review of ultrasound for rotator cuff tendinopathy (cited below) found only six trials, all po…
Criticism
- The disconnect between the popularity of US and the more or less total lack of informative research is troubling. A handful of good studies is a joke for a therapy that is worth literally billions of dollars in the marketplace. How can that much therapy be sold without a satisfactory body of evidence that it works? Bizarre! This is the ultimate example of pseudo-quackery: popular treatm…
Quotes
- This does not mean that US never works for anyone. It does mean that it has been prescribed and sold to patients for decades with unjustified confidence. And that is not cool. And so few patients are singing the virtues of standard US. It not only fails to generate testimonials, but actually generates many annoyed antimonials. Meanwhile, there is still just no basis for thinking that ultr…
Results
- Ultrasound is an unusually easy treatment to test scientifically.10 If it works reasonably well, then the results should be pretty clear. Just compare results in patients who received real ultrasound to patients who get a fake instead! And yet there are just a few dozen such experiments in the scientific literature, and most of them are seriously flawed. Conclusions from evidence reviews l…
Prognosis
- Standard therapeutic ultrasound probably does little or nothing for most people. A sliver of hope remains that some specific conditions will respond to ultrasound with just the right settings.
Marketing
- Not only that, but ultrasound has found new life in the marketplace as shockwave therapy faster, stronger waves, with a bigger price tag! Consider this marketing language from a Canadian company, Shockwave Institute, specializing in ESWT:
Status
- Things seem to have changed for the better, though 80-85% effective would still be a hard claim to defend.
Uses
- Bizarrely, ESWT is being used to treat conditions as unexpected as erectile dysfunction, stroke, and venous leg ulcers. Theres even some preliminary evidence for such uses though not all. But there are now multiple positive reviews of ESWT for its more common uses, like stubborn cases of plantar fasciitis, a painful irritation of the arch of the foot. A good 2016 example is Lou et al, w…
Symptoms
- Patients often express irritation with a common physical therapy business model: working with several patients at once, rotating between rooms or beds, often leaving patients with passive therapies (like a moist hot pack from a hydrocollator nice enough, but worth a steep fee?) Many patients often go a step further and complain specifically about ultrasound and TENS, skeptical …
Purpose
- The big idea is this will blow your mind! that cells and tissues respond well to being shaken (not stirred). In theory, ultrasound works by vibrating tissues back to health, which sounds like something youd hear on an infomercial, or the Dr. Oz Show. What, exactly, does vibration do to tissues? Does anyone actually understand it?
Future
- There is lots of interesting ultrasound biology to consider, and scientists may eventually nail down effects that might be the basis for new evidence-based therapies. For instance, a decade later, Tsai et al declared that There is strong supporting evidence from animal studies about the positive effects of ultrasound on tendon healing31 but animal studies are notoriously misleadin…
Example
- Another great example: the persistent hope that rattling cells with sonic vibrations might speed the healing of bone fractures, particularly low intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS). Such an effect, if proven, would certainly be a delightful bit of weird good news about biology. Unfortunately, it is probably dis-proven. In 2017, the British Medical Journal published an excellent review with a ver…
Society and culture
- Physical therapists often cite the gate control mechanism as a justification for US and ESWT (and some other popular treatments, especially TENS). This is nonsense and a great example of why patients should be cautious, especially with the expense of ESWT.
Applications
- The gate control mechanism is an important idea in pain science, proposed in 1965 by Dr. Ronald Melzack and Dr. Patrick Wall, and still accepted today as an explanation for a familiar phenomenon: the way we rub injured body parts for a little pain relief. The idea is that pain signals pass through a gate in the spinal column. The state of the gate is controlled by many factors. Ho…
Reviews
- Although it may be surprising in contrast to the generally unimpressive evidence of the effectiveness about therapeutic ultrasound, it nevertheless reinforces that ultrasound does indeed do some interesting things to tissues: its just not clear exactly what. An important caveat is that there is significant scientific debate about what trigger points really are.34 Some would say its h…