Revisión sistemática de la eficacia de la electrolisis percutánea en el tratamiento de tendinopatías en la extremidad inferior

Introduction

In sport activities, chronic tendinopathy is one of the most common degenerative pathology in the lower extremity. In this work we review what the literature says regarding the effectiveness of the technique of percutaneous electrolysis, as one of the most innovative treatments in the regeneration of tendons to solve these problems faster than with conventional rehabilitation methods.

Materials and method

A literature search was performed on several databases included: Pubmed, ScienceDirect, Dialnet, and Scielo. The terms used were: percutaneous electrolysis, tendinopathy, eccentric exercises, Achilles tendon, patella, and Epi Technique.

Results

It was included a total of 7 studies of which 4 were case series studies, 2 were articles of clinical cases and 1 was an experimental study in rats, but we found no randomized clinical trials or longitudinal studies. The results showed that the electrolysis could help to shorten the number of sessions and the duration of treatment of tendinopathies in lower limb reducing the recovery time of the patient. The combination of this technique with eccentric exercises appears to give better results. In addition, the studied technique is not painless.

Discussion

Percutaneous electrolysis is, a new technique that would broaden the therapeutic approach in terms of the physical and functional recovery in the treatment of the most common sports injuries in podiatric offices. The low quality of evidence reported on this technique reflects the need for studies with sound scientific evidence and randomized clinical trials that will deliver relevant search results regarding the technique and its effectiveness.