Gollwitzer et al. 2015, Focused shockwave therapy for chronic plantar fasciitis (RCT)

Randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind multicentre trial of focused extracorporeal shockwave therapy for chronic plantar fasciitis: three weekly sessions of 2,000 impulses at 0.25 mJ/mm² versus sham. Active treatment produced a clinically relevant reduction in heel pain over placebo at twelve weeks. The result sits alongside other trials in which the placebo response was large and the active-minus-sham gap narrower, which is why the condition-level evidence is graded an adjunct for recalcitrant cases rather than a first move. A positive double-blind RCT for the heel.