[Chronic plantar fasciitis: Effectiveness of stretching, ultrasound, and phonophoresis. A randomized clinical trial].

BACKGROUND

Plantar fasciitis (PF) is the main cause of heel pain. Conservative management is broad, but there is no consensus on the most effective adjuvant physical therapy.

OBJECTIVE

To compare the clinical effectiveness of phonophoresis plus stretching, therapeutic ultrasound plus stretching, and isolated stretching in reducing pain in patients with chronic PF.

MATERIAL AND

METHODS

A randomized, single-blind clinical trial conducted in a rehabilitation unit. 60 patients with chronic PF were included, randomly assigned to 3 groups (n = 20 in each group): G1 (phonophoresis + stretching), G2 (ultrasound + stretching), and G3 (stretching only). Pain was assessed using the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) at baseline and after 15 sessions. Paired Student's t test was used for intragroup comparison, and ANOVA with Tukey's post-hoc test was used for intergroup comparison.

RESULTS

All 60 participants (76.7% women) completed the study. All groups showed a statistically significant reduction in pain (p < 0.01). The mean VAS reduction was: G1 (4.9 points), G2 (4.3 points), and G3 (6.7 points). The G3 (stretching only) group achieved the lowest final VAS score (0.9 ± 0.5). The intergroup comparison showed a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) favoring the G3 group over G1 and G2.

CONCLUSION

Isolated stretching demonstrated superior efficacy in pain reduction compared to the addition of ultrasound or phonophoresis in the treatment of chronic PF.