Marion Mucha studied veterinary medicine in Vienna, Austria, and already focused on physical medicine as part of her doctoral thesis.
She heads the Outpatient Clinic for Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation at the Vetmeduni Vienna, where she has been working since 2002. In addition to patient care and clinical research, the training of students is also an important aspect of her work.
She is a certified veterinary acupuncturist (CVA, IVAS), certified physiotherapist for dogs (CCRP), Certified Veterinary Pain Practitioner (CVPP) and since 2018 European Veterinary Specialist in Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation (Dipl. ECVSMR), where she helps with committee work and is active on the board.
Her book ‘Checklist Acupuncture for Small Animals’ was published in 2010.
FOCUSED VERSUS RADIAL SHOCKWAVE THERAPY IN CANINE REHABILITATION
Marion Mucha
Extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) is a non-invasive treatment option and is used in both human and veterinary medicine with promising results for many musculoskeletal diseases, such as improved bone healing, tendinopathies or osteoarthritis.
Nevertheless, a literature review found only limited evidence for positive effects of ESWT in dogs and horses. The reasons for the weak scientific evidence are sometimes due to the small number of studies, the usually small sample size, methodological problems and the fact that positive results were not further investigated in independent studies (Berg et al, 2022).
The question of whether focussed or radial shock waves are more effective in the treatment of plantar fasciitis in humans and which energy levels are more effective has been investigated in a meta-analysis, where medium and lower energy levels were superior to high-energy ESWT and focussed ESWT appears to be more effective than radial ESWT. Another finding of this study was that the use of local anaesthesia can reduce the effectiveness of both low and high energy ESWT (2).
In systematic reviews evidence for focused ESWT on low back pain in humans is reported, this provides a possible positive outlook on the successful treatment of caudal back pain also in animals (3, 4).
In a paper by Giordani et al. a patient suffering from plantar fasciitis was treated with the so-called ‘global approach’, where the trigger points along the fascial lines were treated and not, as generally described, at the painful site alone. This approach seems to have a better effect and could also be considered in veterinary medicine (5).
- Anna Boström 1 , Anna Bergh 2,* , Heli Hyytiäinen 1 and Kjell Asplund Systematic Review of Complementary and Alternative Veterinary Medicine in Sport and Companion Animals: Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy Animals 2022, 12, 3124., 1-18
- Ying-Chun Wang 1,2, Shu-Jung Chen 2, Peng-Ju Huang 2,3, Hsuan-Ti Huang 1,2,3,Yuh-Min Cheng 2,3,4 and Chia-Lung Shih Efficacy of Different Energy Levels Used in Focused and Radial Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy in the Treatment of Plantar Fasciitis: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Placebo- Controlled Trials J. Clin. Med. 2019, 8, 1497
- Ferdinandov D (2024) Focused extracorporeal shockwave therapy for the treatment of low back pain: a systematic review. Med. 11:1435504.
- Extracorporeal shock wave therapy for low back pain A systematic review and meta-analysis Zhuorao Wua , Tianqi Zhoua , Shuangchun Ai, MDa,b, Medicine (2023) 102:52 1-9
- Federico Giordani (1), Andrea Bernini (1), Hannes Müller-Ehrenberg (2), Carla Stecco (3), Stefano Masiero (1) A global approach for plantar fasciitis with extracorporeal shockwaves treatment, Eur J Transl Myol 29 (3): 171-177, 2019
