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Review
. 2022 Aug 17:13:963849.
doi: 10.3389/fneur.2022.963849. eCollection 2022.

Application of extracorporeal shock wave therapy in nervous system diseases: A review

Juan Guo  1 , Hong Hai  1 , Yuewen Ma  1
Affiliations
Review

Application of extracorporeal shock wave therapy in nervous system diseases: A review

Juan Guo et al. Front Neurol. .

Abstract

Neurological disorders are one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide, and their therapeutic options remain limited. Recent animal and clinical studies have shown the potential of extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) as an innovative, safe, and cost-effective option to treat neurological disorders. Moreover, the cellular and molecular mechanism of ESWT has been proposed to better understand the regeneration and repairment of neurological disorders by ESWT. In this review, we discuss the principles of ESWT, the animal and clinical studies involving the use of ESWT to treat central and peripheral nervous system diseases, and the proposed cellular and molecular mechanism of ESWT. We also discuss the challenges encountered when applying ESWT to the human brain and spinal cord and the new potential applications of ESWT in treating neurological disorders.

Keywords: central nervous system diseases; cost-effectiveness; extracorporeal shock wave therapy; mechanotransduction; neural tissue regeneration; peripheral nervous system diseases.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
—Waveform characteristics of shock wave (fESW): a short rise time, high peak pressure, and non-linearity. Pmax, Pressure maximum. ...Waveform characteristics of pressure wave (rESW).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Animal studies of the use of ESWT in sciatic nerve (A), brain (B), and spinal cord (C).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Cellular and molecular mechanisms for the interaction of ESWT with tissue.
Figure 4
Figure 4
PI3K-AKT-eNOS and ERK 1/2 signaling pathway induced by ESWT could promote angiogenesis through endothelial cells migration.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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