The new Orthopedic Therapy Head is still a focused beam but the beam has been widened so that more cells in the body are exposed to the energy from the high-pressure sound wave with each pulse.
Larger areas treated around a horse’s injury leads to a better biological response from the body. This is seen by a study conducted at University of Georgia, College of Veterinary Medicine looking at the growth factor release from platelets in PRP. Wide beam, moderate energy caused more growth factor release than its counter-part, a high energy more focused beam.
Originally shock wave machines were designed to break kidney stones. Here the objective is to break a stone in the center of the beam and have little or no effect on the surrounding tissue. Hence all machines, even today, have the old “lithotripsy” design with a sweet spot in the middle where most of the energy is concentrated and little or nothing beyond.
In musculoskeletal applications we actually want the reverse of the old/traditional design. The objective is not to drill a hole into a lesion. Rather the target is the area immediately surrounding the lesion.
Release of growth factors from PRP were significantly increased following treatment with extracorporeal shockwave therapy when compared to untreated growth factor concentrations (negative control). This data supports the use of ESWT immediately following therapeutic injection of PRP into injured soft tissue structures in the horse to increase the concentrations of growth factors released from the platelets.