ESWT for Wound Healing | Landscheidt Study & Clinical Results

Shock Wave Therapy for Acute and Chronic Wounds: Clinical Benefits & Healing Outcomes. Despite the advanced treatment options available, chronic wounds continue to pose a challenge in therapy. They often heal only incompletely and are susceptible to infection. Against this background, Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy (ESWT) has increasingly formed the focus of research. A new prospective, randomised clinical trial by Landscheidt et al., published in the journal Health Science Reports, investigated the efficacy of ESWT in the healing of donor and recipient sites of split skin grafts. The objective was to promote the formation of new skin over the wound – known as epithelialisation – with low-energy focused shock waves while reducing the risk of infection. Study design and methodology. A total of 35 patients with chronic wounds were included in the study. They fulfilled the criteria of an expected wound surface area of over 50 cm² and an age between 18 and 80 years. 25 patients received treatment with shock waves on either the donor site or the recipient site of the skin graft. The other site in each case was given a placebo treatment, making it possible to effectively evaluate the direct difference. The other 10 patients were given only a placebo treatment, to enable the effect of the treatment to be compared more effectively. The focused ESWT was applied to donor or recipient sites on days 5, 7, and 9 after transplantation. An additional evaluation of the wound situation was carried out on day 90 to record the long-term result. A DUOLITH® SD1 »ultra« of STORZ MEDICAL was used in the trial. Results: More rapid wound healing, reduced risk of infection. The results speak for themselves: epithelialisation progressed significantly more quickly with the ESWT treatment than with the placebo treatment (0.86 vs 0.92; p < 0.05). The rate of wound infection was also significantly lower with ESWT. Other secondary parameters such as wound pain or microbial colonisation were also recorded, and these were without any indications of serious side effects. In summary: ESWT as a promising supplementary treatment in wound therapy. The researchers have identified an effective method of accelerating wound healing in the repeated use of Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy (ESWT) together with proper wound care. As shock waves alleviate inflammation and can stimulate the formation of new blood vessels, this treatment could be a helpful future addition in operations or other common therapies, with the aim of enabling wounds to heal more quickly and to noticeably improve the patients’ quality of life.