ÖZLEM AYNACI, AHMET YAŞAR ZENGİN, LASİF SERDAR, EMİNE CANYILMAZ, FATİH CANYILMAZ, EMEL HACIİSLAMOĞLU, FATMA ZENGİN, OSMAN AYNACI, ADNAN YÖNEY
Turkish Journal of Oncology - 2021;36(3):329-337
OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is, therefore, to compare three different treatment modalities for symptomatic plantar fasciitis (PF), namely, effective in pain control. METHODS This study involved 205 patients with a diagnosis of painful PFs, treated during the years 2013 through 2017 at three institutions. Of these, 67 patients received a total dose of 6.0 Gy radiotherapy (RT in 3-weekly fractions of 1 Gy (RT arm); 65 patients received local steroid injection (SI) of 40 mg (1 ml) of methylprednisolone; and 0.5 ml of 1% lidocaine in the painful heel spur, using palpation (palpation guided) (PG SI arm) and 73 received extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) in five sessions with weekly intervals (ESWT arm). Patients recorded visual analog scale (VAS) score, a modified Pannewitz score and a 5-level function score. Patients with available ?12 months of data were included in the present study. RESULTS Follow-up data were available for patients with a median of 15.5 (range, 6.5-37.4) months. There was a significant improvement in VAS scores and 5-level function scores in the RT arm at 3 and 6 month period arm (p<0.001). In univariate and multivariate analyses, only treatment scheme was associated with considerable pain control (p=0.006). CONCLUSION These findings suggest that all treatment modalities provide significant pain relief in patients with painful heel spur. This analysis also demonstrates RT is superior choice for chronic PF in cases of failure with conservative treatments when compared to extracorporeal shock wave therapy and PG SI.
