Abstract: Introduction: Plantar fasciitis is the one of the commonest causes of heel pain (especially inferior heel pain) that can progress to chronic plantar fasciitis and cause severe pain
[1]. Several treatment modalities have been used to manage this, including physiotherapy (strengthening and stretching exercises), botulinum and corticosteroid injections
[2]. Local corticosteroid injections have been used extensively for these cases since long period, because of its availability and cost-effectiveness, which made it a good treating modality. In our study we aim to compare the combined effect of corticosteroid with physiotherapy Vs corticosteroid alone.
Material and methods: In our study, we took 65 patients, age ranging from 30-65 years and divided into 2 groups through blind chit method, G1 (n=34) who were advised strength training and stretching exercises with corticosteroid injections and G2 (n=31) were those who only got corticosteroid injection. Outcome in both groups was assessed by measuring the heel pain using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) [3]. For VAS functional pain improvement, the Confidence Interval (95%) is 5–35 mm (p < 0.05).
Result: There is statistically significant improvement in the primary outcomes at 4 months. Comparing G1 with G2 the mean difference in VAS pain during function is 23 mm (confidence interval i.e. CI 95% is 5–35 mm, p < 0.05). For the secondary outcome improvement for G1 group as compared to G2 for VAS pain during daily function at 2 months p<0.05 at 4 months p<0.003 and at 12 months p<0.05. For VAS morning pain the difference was only significant (p<0.05) at only 4 months.
Conclusion: The most important finding of our study is that corticosteroid injections combined with physiotherapy had a superior short and long-term effect in plantar fasciitis patients without any severe side effects. A single ultrasound guided dexamethasone injection is a safe and effective short-term treatment for plantar fasciitis [4].
