Invited Commentary–A Decade Later, Has LiSWT Delivered on Its Promise?

Abstract

Shock-wave therapy (SWT) has been recognized as a viable treatment modality for select clinical indications since the early 1980’s, when it was predominantly used as a minimally invasive therapy for nephroureteral calculi. Soon after, SWT was found to stimulate angiogenesis in hypovascularized structures and became increasingly utilized for various orthopedic indications. However, it was not until 2010, when Vardi, Gruenwald and colleagues published their 6-month pilot data on the use of low-intensity SWT (LiSWT) to treat erectile dysfunction (ED) when LiSWT became increasingly popularized for sexual medicine indications.