Phonophoresis versus ultrasound in the treatment of common musculoskeletal conditions

The effectiveness of therapeutic ultrasound for musculoskeletal conditions of the lower limb: A literature review

“…Gam and Johannsen [9] and Van der Windt [10] considered a variety of musculoskeletal disorders of the body (lateral epicondylitis, shoulder pain, rheumatic disorders and others) whereas this review was specific to the lower limb and incorporated the most current research available. It was evident from this review that more attention has been given to the production of higher quality studies in more recent years, which could be attributed to the emphasis placed by the CONSORT statement [24]. Higher quality research although limited has not produced any further evidence to support the use of therapeutic ultrasound.…”

“…The initial search yielded a total of fifteen studies five of which were excluded from the review (table 3) [23][24][25][26][27]. The literature search found that therapeutic ultrasound has been used for a number of lower-limb musculoskeletal conditions commonly encountered in podiatric practice such as ankle ligament injuries [13,16,17,18,20,21]; knee pain [12] and [19]; heel pain [15]; and Achilles tendon pain [14].…”

“…In recent years all medical and health related professions have been encouraged to make treatment decisions based on the best available evidence which is considered to be 8 the randomised controlled trial (RCT), the 'gold standard' method of evaluation for treatment interventions [24]. Of the RCTs identified in this review the mean quality assessment score was 9.5 out of a possible 20 points.…”

Comparison of the Effectiveness of Pulsed and Continuous Diclofenac Phonophoresis in Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis

“…Phonophoresis has been reported to have been used with topical application of steroids, salicylate, anesthetic agents, methly nicotinate, NSAID, amphotericin B etc 6,7) . It is one of the many modalities for the treatment of musculoskeletal disorders such as tendinitis, tenosinovitis, temporomandibular disorders, epicondilitis and knee osteoarthritis [8][9][10] . In the literature, there are reports on the effect of phonophoresis with different types of ultrasound, either pulsed or continuous, on drug delivery into underlying tissues 6,11) .…”

Ultra-som terapêutico na cicatrização tecidual

“…Apesar das controvérsias existentes sobre a aceleração da cicatrização (DYSON, 1990), o US tem sido usado com muita freqüência há mais de 40 anos para o tratamento de desordens musculoesqueléticas como tendinites, sinovites, tenosinovites, epicondilites, bursites e osteoartrites (KLAIMAN et al, 1998). Porém, revisões sistemáticas têm repetidamente concluído que não há evidências suficientes para suportar os benefícios dos efeitos do US nas doses freqüentemente utilizadas nas clínicas (WARDEN, 2003).…”