ROLE OF ULTRASOUND THERAPY IN THE TREATMENT OF STRESS FRACTURES

Area of Science:

• Orthopedics
• Sports Medicine
• Physical Therapy

Background:

• Stress fractures result from repetitive exercise exceeding bone remodeling capacity.
• They are a major cause of morbidity and lost manpower during military training.
• Current treatment involves rest, with limited evidence for accelerated healing methods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy of Ultrasound Therapy (UST) in treating stress fractures.
• To compare UST's effectiveness against conventional therapy for stress fracture recovery.

Main Methods:

• A study involving 75 patients with radiographically confirmed stress fractures.
• A control group (32 patients) received conventional therapy.
• An experimental group (45 patients) received Ultrasound Therapy (UST) as out-patients.

Main Results:

• Conventional therapy averaged 75.3 days for treatment and 37.28 days for hospitalization.
• Ultrasound Therapy (UST) treatment averaged only 15.05 days.
• UST demonstrated a significant reduction in healing time and return-to-training duration.

Conclusions:

• Ultrasound Therapy (UST) effectively speeds up the healing process of stress fractures.
• UST drastically reduces the time needed for individuals to return to training activities.
• This therapy offers a promising solution to minimize manpower loss due to stress fractures.