Plantar Fasciitis, Another Approach—Using Acupuncture and Looking Beyond the Lower Limb with a Brief Review of Conventional Care: A Case Series

Introduction: Plantar fasciitis is a common idiopathic debilitating condition linked to the biomechanics of the lower limb. Conventional care of stretching, splints, arch supports, extracorporeal shock wave therapy and cortisone injections offer inconsistent results. This case series demonstrates another approach to the management of plantar fasciitis utilising acupuncture and looking beyond the lower limb. In addition to commonly used points, two extra points are used with dense-disperse electro-stimulation. Case presentation: Two retrospective cases are presented. Case one is a 23-year-old Caucasian female who presented with a history of intermittent left heel pain which was painful especially on first step in the morning. Symptoms resolved after five acupuncture treatments addressing the plantar fascia, low back and leg-length imbalance. Symptoms would initially recur whenever a back injury recurred. The second case is a 46-year-old Caucasian male who presented with a 12-week history of bilateral plantar fasciitis confirmed on ultrasound. The patient also complained of mild low back pain. Acupuncture treatment addressing the plantar fascia, low back pain and leg-length imbalance led to complete resolution of symptoms after six weekly treatments. Conclusion: This case series adds to the limited literature on the treatment of plantar fasciitis with acupuncture and offers a low risk treatment strategy. Two extra acupuncture points are described and provisionally named. Three other areas are identified for further investigation. The first is an association between apparent leg-length difference and some cases of plantar fasciitis. The second is the question of whether platelet-derived growth factor is activated via the electroacupuncture aspect of the treatment. The third is the need to conduct a post-recovery imaging study of the plantar fascia in an attempt to correlate tendon changes to the mechanism of acupuncture treatment. K E Y W O R D S acupuncture, electroacupuncture, auriculotherapy, dry needling, leglength difference, plantar fasciitis. Stephen Janz* BN, RN, BAc, GCCHM, GCPH Clinic Director, Kenmore Centre for Health, Brisbane, Australia 2010 VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2 30 Australian Journal of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine 31 S Janz Plantar Fasciitis: A Case Series