Reported results for shockwave therapy depend on the exact words around them. This article keeps three pairs apart: plantar fasciitis versus chronic plantar fasciitis, ESWT versus focused f-ESWT, and a trial versus a pooled review of trials.
The terms in play
Chronic plantar fasciitis is narrower than plantar fasciitis. ESWT stands for extracorporeal shock wave therapy, and the focused form carries an f in front, as in the open label randomized clinical trial of f-ESWT on myofascial points. A trial reports on its own participants. A meta-analysis, such as the meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials on chronic plantar fasciitis, combines trials into one reading.
Lined up point by point
The purpose differs. The trial asks about one version of the treatment, f-ESWT, applied to myofascial points. The meta-analysis asks about ESWT overall in chronic plantar fasciitis. NIH PMC gives the meta-analysis conclusion this way: "ESWT is a safe and effective treatment of chronic plantar fasciitis refractory to nonoperative treatments." The method differs too. The trial's title calls it open label and randomized, and the meta-analysis draws only on randomized controlled trials.
What each can show also differs. A single trial speaks to the version it tested. The pooled conclusion speaks only to the condition and history it names, and it does not cover other conditions.
The phrase that gets blurred
"Effective" is the word that travels. In the conclusion above it is attached to a specific condition and a specific history, which is chronic plantar fasciitis that has not responded to nonoperative treatments. A page that keeps "effective" and drops the rest has changed the claim.
Who each source is documented for
The pooled review concerns the group its conclusion names. A paper on long term effectiveness of ESWT in amateur runners is about one named group, amateur runners. Neither is written for a reader outside the group it names.
The question that decides
Ask which condition, which version of the treatment and which group a result was measured in. If a description answers all three, it can be compared with another. If it answers none, it is a label and not a result.