Can Physical Therapy Modalities Have An Impact?
There are a variety of physical therapy modalities that one can use in the first-line treatment of plantar fasciitis. DiGiovanni and colleagues performed a prospective study comparing the effectiveness of the typical Achilles/gastrocnemius stretch to a tissue-specific plantar fascia stretch.1 The patient performs the plantar fascia stretch by crossing the affected foot over the contralateral knee. The toes of the affected foot should be maximally dorsiflexed in order to put a stretch on the plantar fascia. Instruct patients to stretch three times a day for 10 reps, holding the stretch for 10 seconds each time.1 When it came to the plantar fascia stretch group, the study results showed significant improvement in the patients’ maximal pain and pain with first steps in the morning in comparison to patients who wore a prefabricated orthosis and performed Achilles tendon stretches.1 There are other physical therapy modalities that can be important parts of a multimodal approach to successfu
