Neural therapy of an athlete’s chronic plantar fasciitis : a case report and review of the literature

  • Background: The focus of this case report is on the role of inflammation as a contributor to pain in plantar fasciitis and its cure by the injection of local anesthetics. Case presentation: This is a case report on a 24-year-old white man, a middle-distance runner, with chronic unilateral plantar fasciitis and perceived heel pain for almost 1.5 years. He was treated with neural therapy (that is, injection of < 1 ml procaine 1% which is a local anesthetic with strong anti-inflammatory properties) of the surgical scar and along the surgical puncture channel. The follow-up period from the time of first presentation until publication was 2.5 years. At admission, pain intensity (visual analog scale) in the affected leg was severe (10 cm, visual analog scale; range 0–10 cm) when walking and moderate (5 cm, visual analog scale) when standing. After the first session of injections he could stand pain-free and pain when walking was markedly reduced (− 90%). After the third session, he reported no pain in the affected leg and could return to sports at his former level (no difference in training load compared to non-injured state). There was no recurrence of inflammatory signs or heel pain despite intense athletics training up to the date of publication. Conclusions: In prolonged cases of plantar fasciitis, inflammation is an important component in the development of persistent pain. The results of our case describe the effects of three neural therapy sessions that abolished inflammation and associated heel pain. Neural therapy might be an effective and time-efficient approach in the treatment of plantar fasciitis, enabling an early return to sports.

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Author:Johannes FleckensteinORCiDGND, Matthias König, Winfried BanzerGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-471424
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13256-018-1770-4
ISSN:1752-1947
Pubmed Id:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30126441
Parent Title (English):Journal of medical case reports
Publisher:BioMed Central
Place of publication:London
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Year of Completion:2018
Date of first Publication:2018/08/21
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2018/08/23
Tag:Inflammatory pain; Injection therapy; Multimodal treatment; Procaine; Return to play; Sympathetic nerve
Volume:12
Issue:1, Art. 233
Page Number:5
First Page:1
Last Page:5
Note:
Open Access: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Note:
Correction erschienen in: Journal of medical case reports, 12.2018, Nr. 1, Art. 289, doi:10.1186/s13256-018-1852-3
HeBIS-PPN:451291344
Institutes:Psychologie und Sportwissenschaften / Sportwissenschaften
Dewey Decimal Classification:6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 61 Medizin und Gesundheit / 610 Medizin und Gesundheit
7 Künste und Unterhaltung / 79 Sport, Spiele, Unterhaltung / 790 Freizeitgestaltung, darstellende Künste, Sport
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Open-Access-Publikationsfonds:Psychologie und Sportwissenschaften
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung 4.0