I am fully aware this makes me seem (a) ocd or (b) creative or (c) both but hear me out:
I had a fracture in 2021 that the doc recommended a bone stimulator for. My research about this suggested it worked by improving blood flow. The devices only work for a year, so unless I can do some mechanical magic on it, I can’t just test this out w/o acquiring another one, if I can even get the doctor to go for it. Right now I have some achilles bursitis. We’ve tried prednisone, which helped a bit, but it’s not fully gone. I’ve got a massage scheduled for Wed. and a dry needling appt scheduled for Aug. 1. All I’m doing right now is swim (and boy am I grateful that doesn’t seem to irritate it).
What I understand about the achilles is it’s a low blood flow area. So I hypothesize a device that would improve blood flow would help. The only downside I can think of (aside from cost) is if the bone stimulator makes more bone on what is a slight haglund’s deformity (it is VERY slight).
I haven’t done a search in the research literature yet, just wondering if anyone has tried this.
Hey, sorry to hear about this.
(MD here, just in case you forgot).
I have looked into this before as I had quite a run of soft tissue injuries for which my physio was using ultrasound to help settle things down.
In essence, the frequency etc of the bone stimulator is optimised for bone, not for other tissues (which all have a different impedance and hence different levels of penetration etc). It is complex to go into the various frequencies and how these are relevant. But you could find out by googling what frequency your bone stimulator works at, then looking at what frequencies are commonly used for soft tissue injury. I am sure it would not be too hard to google pubmed and find an ultrasound study for achilles bursitis, and that will give you what they used.
I do recall that you are an MD. You’re an anesthesiologist. You were really kind to me two years ago and answered lots of questions.
Thank you for the knowledgeable and helpful reply. That will help my research efforts.
I’m also happy to know I’m not the only nutter who has thought of this
my best to you.
The question is, what type of bone stimulator do you have on hand? I am assuming you have an Ultrasound device that you wear for 20 minutes? If so it should be completely safe and wouldn’t hurt, but would it help? Good question.
The other response is 100% correct on the Ultrasound frequency. You can easily buy personal ultrasound devices with higher intensity and different frequency that better target soft tissue, but be careful with these as they can generate heat so make sure you know what your are doing with the motion of the transducer, treatment duration, etc.
If you have an electromagnetic bone stim, I personally would not use that on your issue.
If you can find one of the older Exogen units on ebay, etc with the orange button ( not purple), you can change the battery on that model FYI.
The other response is 100% correct on the Ultrasound frequency. **You can easily buy personal ultrasound devices **with higher intensity and different frequency that better target soft tissue, but be careful with these as they can generate heat so make sure you know what your are doing with the motion of the transducer, treatment duration, etc.
hmmm this is a thing I hadn’t thought of. Thank you.
The other response is 100% correct on the Ultrasound frequency. **You can easily buy personal ultrasound devices **with higher intensity and different frequency that better target soft tissue, but be careful with these as they can generate heat so make sure you know what your are doing with the motion of the transducer, treatment duration, etc.
hmmm this is a thing I hadn’t thought of. Thank you.
Something about having Chattanooga in the name appealed to my triathlon inner spirit animal!!
On a more serious note, you do have to be quite careful and almost certainly the bone stimulator won’t be an appropriate device to use for a tendon related injury. You may be able to hire a machine that covers the more specific frequency. My physio is ambivalent, as there is controversy as to how useful ultrasound is in soft tissue injuries these days.
You would be best to get advice from your physiotherapist as to what ultrasound therapy they would recommend, frequency, power and duration. Then you can see how you can replicate that.
Something about having Chattanooga in the name appealed to my triathlon inner spirit animal!!
On a more serious note, you do have to be quite careful and almost certainly the bone stimulator won’t be an appropriate device to use for a tendon related injury. You may be able to hire a machine that covers the more specific frequency. My physio is ambivalent, as there is controversy as to how useful ultrasound is in soft tissue injuries these days.
You would be best to get advice from your physiotherapist as to what ultrasound therapy they would recommend, frequency, power and duration. Then you can see how you can replicate that.
I ordered a small ultrasound thing yesterday (one that was a lot cheaper than that one…
I will research ultrasound frequency.
I appreciate the replies - I wouldn’t have thought of getting a personal ultrasound. Considering getting a laser, too - I’ve had a PT use one of those on a hip thing in college and it helped a lot.
