Ultrasound Therapy at Home in Swargate, Pune

Therapeutic ultrasound is not the same as an ultrasound scan. A scan uses sound waves to make a picture; therapeutic ultrasound uses them at different settings to gently warm or stimulate tissue such as tendons, ligaments and muscle. Our ultrasound therapy page explains the principle; this page covers how and when we use it at home in Swargate.

Heels and elbows from a long working day

Two overuse problems are common in people who stand at counters or lift for a living. Pain under the heel that is worst with the first steps of the morning is often plantar fasciitis, and hours on hard floors make it more likely. Pain on the outside of the elbow when gripping, lifting a bag or turning a key is often tennis elbow, which has little to do with tennis and a lot to do with repeated gripping. Both are problems of tissue that has been overloaded, and both respond mainly to changing the load and strengthening the tissue gradually.

What the evidence supports

Ultrasound was used very widely for decades. Better-quality trials have since found that for many conditions it adds little on top of exercise and advice. For some soft-tissue problems it may ease pain a little, and some people find it soothing. We therefore use it selectively, for a limited number of sessions, and always with the exercises that do the main work. If you have had ultrasound for weeks without change, that is a sign the plan needs rethinking.

When ultrasound is not used

• over the eyes, the heart, or the abdomen in pregnancy;
• over the growing ends of bones in children;
• over a known or suspected cancer, an infection, or a recent blood clot;
• on skin with poor feeling, or over an area treated with radiotherapy;
• near a pacemaker or other implanted device.

The session at home

The physiotherapist uses a portable unit, applies gel to the skin, and keeps the probe moving over the area for a few minutes. You may feel mild warmth or nothing at all; it should never hurt. Then comes the real work: calf and foot strengthening for the heel, or graded gripping and wrist exercises for the elbow, plus advice on footwear, standing breaks or how you grip at work. Hands-on manual therapy may be added.

For a recent sprain or strain from sport, the staged plan on sports injury physiotherapy in Swargate is usually the better starting point.

Check with a doctor first if

heel pain followed a fall or jump from a height, an elbow or heel has become suddenly swollen, red and hot, or numbness and tingling are spreading into the hand or foot. Those point to something other than simple overload.

Shankar Sheth Road has a separate ultrasound therapy page. To have heel or elbow pain assessed at home, book a visit; how visits work is explained on the Swargate home physiotherapy page.