EFFECTIVENESS OF THE EXTRACORPOREAL SHOCK WAVE THERAPY ON SPASTICITY AFTER STROKE: LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

 Introduction: stroke is a very important disease in our society, being the leading cause of motor disability. Advances in new therapies that encourage the autonomy and improve the quality of life of these patients are needed. Objective: the objective of this review is to identify the published controlled clinical trials that evaluate the effectiveness of the extracorporeal shock wave therapy on spasticity in stroke patients. Also, to identify the possible causes of these effects and the possible adverse effects of this therapy. Material and method: the databases PubMed, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, LILACS, Cochrane, Scopus and PEDro were used to perform the bibliographic search. Controlled clinical trials in Spanish, English and French language were included. Controlled clinical trials where the subjects of the study were treated with botulinum toxin, phenol and alcohol, were excluded. Results: 86 of the 103initial articles, were removed, 17 full texts were analyzed, of which 11 were removed and 6 controlled clinical trials were included in this study. Conclusions: the extracorporeal shock wave therapy on spasticity in Stroke patients is effective to reduced spastic tone, what is connected with the direct action on the intrinsic muscle stiffness and with the indirect action on the spinal cord excitability. However, further studies are needed to verify these facts. Pain was the only adverse effect that was found.