Optimal Treatment of Plantar Fasciitis: Physical Training, Glucocorticoid Injections or a Combination Thereof.

NCT ID: NCT01994759

Last Updated: 2018-07-11

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

Get a concise snapshot of the trial, including recruitment status, study phase, enrollment targets, and key timeline milestones.

Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

PHASE4

Total Enrollment

90 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2013-09-01

Study Completion Date

2016-12-01

Brief Summary

Review the sponsor-provided synopsis that highlights what the study is about and why it is being conducted.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether reduced load to patients with plantar fasciitis (reduced standing, walking, landing) together with either controlled heavy resistance training or glucocorticosteroid injection or a combination thereof is the best treatment.

Detailed Description

Dive into the extended narrative that explains the scientific background, objectives, and procedures in greater depth.

Plantar fasciitis (PF) is a frequently diagnosed condition, defined as pain at the medial tubercle of the calcaneus, and 10% of the population will at some points in their life experience this condition. Accumulated loading of the plantar fascia seems to relate to development of PF, as it is commonly seen in runners and those who are overweight, and number of daily steps or simply time of standing has been shown to be a predisposing factor for PF development.

Orthosis and glucocorticoid injections are 2 widely used treatments with proven effect. However treatment of overuse injury in other tendon/aponeurosis-like structures, has over the later years been dominated by an increasing documentation of a good curative effect of heavy controlled mechanical loading (eccentric strength exercises or heavy slow concentric strength training) upon tendinopathies in Achilles or patella tendon. However, no studies have looked at the influence of physical training (e.g. strength training) on the diseased plantar aponeurosis. Also no studies have looked at the effect of a combination of giving local glucocorticoid injection and training on this or other tendon overuse entities.

We hypothesize that heavy strength training will have a positive effect upon PF, and that a combination of training and glucocorticoid injections will have an additive effect upon this disease and be even more effective than each of the treatments alone. Glucocorticoid injection acting as the standard control treatment.

Conditions

See the medical conditions and disease areas that this research is targeting or investigating.

Plantar Fasciitis

Study Design

Understand how the trial is structured, including allocation methods, masking strategies, primary purpose, and other design elements.

Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

TREATMENT

Blinding Strategy

SINGLE

Outcome Assessors

Study Groups

Review each arm or cohort in the study, along with the interventions and objectives associated with them.

Training

strengthening and stretching exercises.

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Reduction in impact

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

advocate reduction in standing, walking, running, jumping. advocate shock absorbing shoes advocate prefabricated insoles advocate taping in special occasions.

Training

Intervention Type OTHER

Patients are instructed to carry out strengthening exercises for the fascia plantaris 3 days a week and stretching exercises every day. Four times in the first 2 months supervised training in groups is carried out with a physiotherapist supervising the exercises and instructing in progression and new exercises, and all participants are instructed to carry out a specific training program daily at home. The amount of training performed by each patient, is registered in a diary weekly

Glucocorticosteroid injection

Injection of 40 mg methylprednisolone.

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Glucocorticosteroid injection

Intervention Type DRUG

Ultra sound guided injection af 1 ml og Glucocorticosteroid (methylprednisolone 40 mg) and 1 ml of lidocaine 5mg/ml from the medial side profound to the thickened part of the fascia plantaris.

Glucocorticosteroid injections are given every month until the aponeurosis thickness is less than 4 mm as determined by ultrasonography (max 3 injections).

Reduction in impact

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

advocate reduction in standing, walking, running, jumping. advocate shock absorbing shoes advocate prefabricated insoles advocate taping in special occasions.

Training and Glucocorticosteroid injections

A combination treatment of the two above.

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Glucocorticosteroid injection

Intervention Type DRUG

Ultra sound guided injection af 1 ml og Glucocorticosteroid (methylprednisolone 40 mg) and 1 ml of lidocaine 5mg/ml from the medial side profound to the thickened part of the fascia plantaris.

Glucocorticosteroid injections are given every month until the aponeurosis thickness is less than 4 mm as determined by ultrasonography (max 3 injections).

Reduction in impact

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

advocate reduction in standing, walking, running, jumping. advocate shock absorbing shoes advocate prefabricated insoles advocate taping in special occasions.

Training

Intervention Type OTHER

Patients are instructed to carry out strengthening exercises for the fascia plantaris 3 days a week and stretching exercises every day. Four times in the first 2 months supervised training in groups is carried out with a physiotherapist supervising the exercises and instructing in progression and new exercises, and all participants are instructed to carry out a specific training program daily at home. The amount of training performed by each patient, is registered in a diary weekly

Interventions

Learn about the drugs, procedures, or behavioral strategies being tested and how they are applied within this trial.

Glucocorticosteroid injection

Ultra sound guided injection af 1 ml og Glucocorticosteroid (methylprednisolone 40 mg) and 1 ml of lidocaine 5mg/ml from the medial side profound to the thickened part of the fascia plantaris.

Glucocorticosteroid injections are given every month until the aponeurosis thickness is less than 4 mm as determined by ultrasonography (max 3 injections).

Intervention Type DRUG

Reduction in impact

advocate reduction in standing, walking, running, jumping. advocate shock absorbing shoes advocate prefabricated insoles advocate taping in special occasions.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Training

Patients are instructed to carry out strengthening exercises for the fascia plantaris 3 days a week and stretching exercises every day. Four times in the first 2 months supervised training in groups is carried out with a physiotherapist supervising the exercises and instructing in progression and new exercises, and all participants are instructed to carry out a specific training program daily at home. The amount of training performed by each patient, is registered in a diary weekly

Intervention Type OTHER

Other Intervention Names

Discover alternative or legacy names that may be used to describe the listed interventions across different sources.

Heavy slow resistance exercise Eccentric training stretching Methylprednisolone Depo-medrol Shock absorbtion

Eligibility Criteria

Check the participation requirements, including inclusion and exclusion rules, age limits, and whether healthy volunteers are accepted.

Inclusion Criteria

* Pain at the medial attachment of fascia plantaris.
* First step pain in the morning
* Symptoms for at least 3 months.
* Age 20-65 years
* Ultrasound scanning at the first visit shows thickness of the fascia above 4 mm.
* Patient can read and understand danish

Exclusion Criteria

* known arthritis, inflammatory bowl disease, psoriasis or clinical signs of any of these
* Leg ulcerations
* Longlasting oedema of the leg and foot
* Palpatory decreased puls in the foot
* Diabetes
* Reduced sensibility in the foot
* Infections in the foot
* Daily use of pain killers
* Pregnancy or planning to become pregnant
* Earlier operations on the foot, that is judged to complicate training
* Patient assessed not to be able to participate in the training for other reasons
* Glucocorticosteroid injection to the diseased plantar fascia within the last 6 months.
Minimum Eligible Age

20 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

65 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sponsors

Meet the organizations funding or collaborating on the study and learn about their roles.

Fonden for Faglig Udvikling af Speciallægepraksis, Denmark

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role collaborator

Bispebjerg Hospital

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

Identify the individual or organization who holds primary responsibility for the study information submitted to regulators.

Finn Elkjær Johannsen

chief physician, MD, specialist in Rheumatology

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Learn about the lead researchers overseeing the trial and their institutional affiliations.

Michael Kjær, Professor

Role: STUDY_CHAIR

University of Copenhagen

Locations

Explore where the study is taking place and check the recruitment status at each participating site.

Institute of Sports Medicine Copenhagen, Bispebjerg Hospital

Copenhagen, , Denmark

Site Status

Countries

Review the countries where the study has at least one active or historical site.

Denmark

References

Explore related publications, articles, or registry entries linked to this study.

Baldassin V, Gomes CR, Beraldo PS. Effectiveness of prefabricated and customized foot orthoses made from low-cost foam for noncomplicated plantar fasciitis: a randomized controlled trial. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2009 Apr;90(4):701-6. doi: 10.1016/j.apmr.2008.11.002.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 19345789 (View on PubMed)

Crawford F, Thomson C. Interventions for treating plantar heel pain. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2003;(3):CD000416. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD000416.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 12917892 (View on PubMed)

Uden H, Boesch E, Kumar S. Plantar fasciitis - to jab or to support? A systematic review of the current best evidence. J Multidiscip Healthc. 2011;4:155-64. doi: 10.2147/JMDH.S20053. Epub 2011 May 24.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 21655342 (View on PubMed)

Vohra PK, Kincaid BR, Japour CJ, Sobel E. Ultrasonographic evaluation of plantar fascia bands. A retrospective study of 211 symptomatic feet. J Am Podiatr Med Assoc. 2002 Sep;92(8):444-9. doi: 10.7547/87507315-92-8-444.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 12237265 (View on PubMed)

Tobin L, Simonsen L, Bulow J. Real-time contrast-enhanced ultrasound determination of microvascular blood volume in abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue in man. Evidence for adipose tissue capillary recruitment. Clin Physiol Funct Imaging. 2010 Nov;30(6):447-52. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-097X.2010.00964.x. Epub 2010 Aug 22.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 20731685 (View on PubMed)

Roos E, Engstrom M, Soderberg B. Foot orthoses for the treatment of plantar fasciitis. Foot Ankle Int. 2006 Aug;27(8):606-11. doi: 10.1177/107110070602700807.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 16919213 (View on PubMed)

Radford JA, Landorf KB, Buchbinder R, Cook C. Effectiveness of low-Dye taping for the short-term treatment of plantar heel pain: a randomised trial. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2006 Aug 9;7:64. doi: 10.1186/1471-2474-7-64.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 16895612 (View on PubMed)

Pfeffer G, Bacchetti P, Deland J, Lewis A, Anderson R, Davis W, Alvarez R, Brodsky J, Cooper P, Frey C, Herrick R, Myerson M, Sammarco J, Janecki C, Ross S, Bowman M, Smith R. Comparison of custom and prefabricated orthoses in the initial treatment of proximal plantar fasciitis. Foot Ankle Int. 1999 Apr;20(4):214-21. doi: 10.1177/107110079902000402.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 10229276 (View on PubMed)

Kongsgaard M, Kovanen V, Aagaard P, Doessing S, Hansen P, Laursen AH, Kaldau NC, Kjaer M, Magnusson SP. Corticosteroid injections, eccentric decline squat training and heavy slow resistance training in patellar tendinopathy. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2009 Dec;19(6):790-802. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0838.2009.00949.x. Epub 2009 May 28.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 19793213 (View on PubMed)

Cheng JW, Tsai WC, Yu TY, Huang KY. Reproducibility of sonographic measurement of thickness and echogenicity of the plantar fascia. J Clin Ultrasound. 2012 Jan;40(1):14-9. doi: 10.1002/jcu.20903. Epub 2011 Nov 22.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 22109854 (View on PubMed)

Johannsen FE, Herzog RB, Malmgaard-Clausen NM, Hoegberget-Kalisz M, Magnusson SP, Kjaer M. Corticosteroid injection is the best treatment in plantar fasciitis if combined with controlled training. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc. 2019 Jan;27(1):5-12. doi: 10.1007/s00167-018-5234-6. Epub 2018 Nov 15.

Reference Type DERIVED
PMID: 30443664 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

Review additional registry numbers or institutional identifiers associated with this trial.

H-2-2012-150-FJ

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

More Related Trials

Additional clinical trials that may be relevant based on similarity analysis.

Heel Cushion for Plantar Fasciitis
NCT01017406 UNKNOWN PHASE3