Greetings! I have been a PT for >20 years and just received my CCRT and am so grateful or all of your amazing learning tools. I have been using most modalities for years, except Shockwave is a new one for me. I think there is some general misunderstanding about it from some colleagues as well. We have a radial shockwave unit and Piezoelectric unit. It has been used for OA with good results. I had 5 yo MN Aus Shepherd on my schedule the other day, with fractured patella and 2 failed surgeries 5/8/19 and 5/31/19. A 2nd revision was performed by board certified surgeon on 7/16/19 and at 9 weeks post-op is still non-union (significant gap--hopefully my attached file of rads comes through ok). He lives 3-4 hours away in the mountains, so drove here b/c his surgeon said to find Shockwave in the city to help with healing. (I think he actually mentioned sedated shockwave). When I mentioned this to several co-workers, everyone said the same thing...you can't use Shockwave for fractures, esp unstable fractures.So I had to disappoint this O, and we discussed that an Assisi loop may be a good option. I have since reviewed information and my heart dropped (this was also the 10th eval I did week one of being full-time on my own
. I can't believe we all missed that it can be used for fractures, including non-union. However, due to all of the wiring in this patella as easily seen on the rads, we are doubtful that this would be tolerated by this patient. Any advice would be wonderful.Thank you! Warmly,
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