Xuejiao Guo¹, Lin Li1,², Zhe Yan¹, Yunze Li¹, Zhiyou Peng¹, Yixin Yang¹, Yanfeng Zhang¹, Christoph Schmitz³, Zhiying Feng¹
_{1Department of Pain Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China; 2Department of Anesthesiology, Yuyao People Hospital of Zhejiang, Ningbo, China; 3Extracorporeal Shock Wave Research Unit, Chair of Neuroanatomy, Institute of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany}

Successful treatment of a chronic nonspecific low back pain is a challenge. Should we use manual therapy? Drugs? How about radial extracorporeal shockwaves? In a recent study, Guo et al. tried to find out whether rESWT is more efficient in the management of chronic low back pain than a “drugs only” approach, using an NSAID and a skeletal muscle relaxant. They also searched for evidence if a combination of rESWT with  NSAIDs and skeletal muscle relaxants can represent a superior treatment option, as anecdotal evidence from physicians from Europe and Latin America is pointing at. What was the conclusion and how it may impact your everyday practice? Keep reading and find out.

Prof. Dr. med. Christoph Schmitz
Extracorporeal Shock Wave Research Unit, Chair of Neuroanatomy, Institute of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany

Extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) is a well-investigated and commonly used treatment modality in remedying a variety of musculoskeletal disorders. Combining High Power 905nm laser treatment and ESWT may increase the beneficial use of ESWT in physical and rehabilitation medicine.