Efficacy of Sustained Acoustic Medicine as an Add-on to Traditional Therapy in Treating Sport-related Injuries : Case Reports

Abstract

Context: Musculoskeletal injuries are prevalent in sports, and the application of Sustain Acoustic Medicine (SAM) as a home-use add-on therapy to reduce pain and to increase the probability of athletes returning to sports was evaluated in a case series.

Objectives: To examine the improvements in pain and return to function of athletes using SAM in conjunction with traditional therapies after sustaining sports-related musculoskeletal injuries.

Introduction: Traditional treatments such as rest, physical therapy, manual therapy, a combination of rest, ice compression, and elevation (RICE) are standard of care for musculoskeletal injuries and do not provide adequate accelerated healing to return athletes to activity. SAM is an FDA-approved bio-regenerative technology, which can provide mechanotransductive and thermal stimuli to accelerate tissue healing and reduction in pain daily. Interventions: A case series of 18 athletes who showed little or no improvement with traditional therapies where prescribed SAM treatment as an add-on daily home-use intervention. The study included athletes with sports musculoskeletal injuries, including the arm/shoulder, upper leg/glutes/hips, knees, back, and foot/ankle. Clinical outcomes were recorded along with the ability of athletes' ability to go back to sports, and satisfaction and usability measures of the home treatment. Results: All athletes were satisfied with the usability and comfort of the therapy and 93%reported the therapy was sufficiently discrete. Clinical outcomes indicate all athletes showed an average pain decrease of 3.33±0.82 (p≤0.05) numerical rating scales (NRS), improvement in function, and quality of life. 87% of the athletes documented an improvement in function, and 55% were able to return to sports after conservative intervention failed. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that SAM improves athletes' clinical outcomes. Over 50% of athletes were able to return to sports and resume normal daily function after conservative intervention had failed with addition of daily SAM treatment.

Keywords: Acute Pain; Athletic Training; Chronic Pain; Clinical Trial; Continuous Ultrasound; Long-Duration Ultrasound; Low-Intensity Ultrasound; Musculoskeletal Healing; Musculoskeletal Injury.

Figure 1:

Participant criteria and sites of musculoskeletal injury treated.

Figure 2:

The SAM® device Two transducers (Crystals) and one power controller in an arm strap. Two transducers deliver ultrasound at 3MHz, 0.132W/cm2, 1.3W, each delivering total of 18720 Joules over 4 hours of treatment.

Figure 3:

Application of SAM® to the shoulder.