Effectiveness of Manual Physical Therapy in Treatment of Plantar Fasciopathy

BACKGROUND: Plantar fasciitis is now known as plantar fasciosis or fasciopathy (PF), is a common foot pain disorder in athletes and non-athletes. There is a pain along plantar side of the foot especially in heel and at the site of insertion of the fascia. OBJECTIVE: To determine the effectiveness of manual physical therapy in management of plantar fasciopathy. METHODS: Referred patients of plantar fasciopathy filled a self-reported questionnaire, containing the Foot and Ankle Ability Measure (FAAM) and the Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS). All measures were taken at baseline and at 6 weeks follow up. Treatment of PF in term of pain and function was measured with paired sample T-test. RESULT: Thirty (30) eligible patients (mean age 45.63 years (+/- SD10.81); 73.3% female) signed the consent form. The manual physical therapy group showed clinically sensitive and significant progress in term of pain and function over group II of ultrasound and exercise. The group I showed clinically significant results in terms of FAAM [CI: 3.171, 2.08] (p=0.001) after 6 weeks follow up. The group I also showed clinically significant improvment in terms of NPRS [CI: 0.861, 2.07], (p=0.001) after 6 weeks follow up. CONCLUSION: The result of our study showed that manual physical therapy (MPT) is an effective treatment approach in treatment of plantar fasciopathy.