***TASK*** the task is to summarize an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***INPUT*** the input is a biomedical literature 
    ***OUTPUT*** the output is the summary of an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***DOCUMENTATION*** 
    ***EXAMPLES*** 
    Input: Plantar fasciitis is one of the most common causes of foot pain in adults . In this prospect i ve study , the outcomes of local tenoxicam injection and corticosteroid therapy for the treatment of plantar fasciitis were compared . Patients were r and omly assigned to either the tenoxicam or corticosteroid group . The tenoxicam group ( n=31 ) was treated using a local injection of 1 mL of tenoxicam ( 20 mg/2 mL ) and 1 mL of 2 % lidocaine , whereas the steroid  group ( n=30 ) was treated with a local 1-mL injection containing 40 mg of methylprednisolone acetate and 1 mL of 2 % lidocaine . Clinical evaluations , which were performed before the injection and 6 and 12 months after the injection , consisted of patient-assessed pain using a visual analog scale . In addition , patient satisfaction was measured using the Roles and Maudsley score . Comparison of pre- and posttreatment visual analog scale scores demonstrated a statistically significant difference in both groups ( P<.05 ) . Furthermore , no significant difference was found between the steroid and tenoxicam groups in terms of visual analog scale scores measured 12 months after injection ( P>.05 ) . The tenoxicam injection was not significantly more effective than the corticosteroid injection . However , both methods were effective and successful in treating patients with plantar fasciitis .  Tenoxicam therapy appears to provide pain relief , but its effectiveness in the long term should be explored in additional studies Background The  Visual Analogue Scale ( VAS ) and the Foot Health Status Question naire ( FHSQ ) are two commonly used outcome measures for evaluating foot health . This study aim ed to calculate the Minimal Important Difference ( MID ) of the VAS and the FHSQ . Methods 184 participants with plantar heel pain were recruited from the general public to take part in two r and omised trials ( 92 participants in each trial ) that studied the effectiveness of two conservative interventions for plantar heel pain . Data from these participants were used to calculate the MIDs of the  VAS and the  FHSQ .  An anchor-based method was used to calculate the MIDs . Two distinct types of pain were investigated for the VAS : average pain and first-step pain . All four domains of the FHSQ were investigated : foot pain , foot function , footwear and general foot health . Results The MID for the VAS using the anchor-based approach was -8 mm ( 95 % CI : -12 to -4 ) for average pain and -19 mm ( 95 % CI : -25 to -13 ) for first-step pain on the 100 mm VAS . The MID for the FHSQ was 13 points ( 95 % CI : 6 to 19 ) for pain and 7 points ( 95 % CI : 1 to 13 ) for function . The MID for the footwear domain of the FHSQ was -2 points ( 95 % CI : -8 to 4 ) and 0 points ( 95 % CI : -7 to 6 ) for the general foot health domain of the FHSQ . Conclusion The results of this study provide additional evidence for MID values of the VAS and the FHSQ for plantar heel pain . This is important for clinicians and research ers as it provides a greater underst and ing of how much improvement is required by a patient before a minimal , worthwhile change is experienced . The calculated MIDs will also assist research ers with prospect i ve sample size calculations OBJECTIVE To compare the medium- and long-term effect of pneumatic ballistic extracorporeal shock wave versus ultrasound-guided hormone injection in the treatment of plantar fasciitis . METHODS The clinical data were collected from patients with plantar fasciitis admitted to PLA General Hospital pain department from September , 2015 to February , 2017 . The patients were r and omly divided into ultrasound-guided drug injection group and shock wave group . The therapeutic parameters including the numerical rating scale ( NRS ) scores in the first step pain in the morning , American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society ( AOFAS ) Ankle Hindfoot Scale , and thickness of the plantar fascia were monitored before and at 1 week , 1 month , 3 months , and 6 months after the treatment . The recurrence rate , effectiveness , and patient satisfaction were compared between the two groups at 6 months after the treatment . RESULTS Thirty-nine patients were enrolled in shock wave group and 38 patients in ultrasound  group . The NRS scores in the first step pain in the morning were lowered after treatment in both groups ( P<0.05 ) , and the scores were significantly lower in ultrasound group than in shock wave group at 1 week and 1 month ( P<0.01 ) , but significantly higher in ultrasound group than in shock wave group at 3 and 6 months after treatment ( P<0.05 ) . The AOFAS functional scores were increased in both groups ( P<0.05 ) at 6 months after treatment , was significantly lower in ultrasound group than in shock wave group than group B ( 90.44∓13.27 vs 75.76∓21.40 ; P<0.05 ) . The effective rates in shock wave group and ultrasound group were 92.31 % and 76.32 % , respectively ( P<0.05 ) . Recurrence was found in 1 patient ( 2.56 % ) in shock wave group and in 8 ( 21.05 % ) in ultrasound group ( P<0.05 ) . The patient satisfaction scores were significantly higher in shock wave group than in ultrasound group ( 8.13∓2.67 vs 6.63∓3.75 , P=0.048 ) . CONCLUSION Pneumatic ballistic extracorporeal shock achieves better medium- and long-term outcomes than ultrasound-guided hormone injection in the treatment of plantar fasciitis Plantar fasciitis is a common cause of heel pain . It is a disabling disease in its chronic form . It is a degenerative tissue condition of the plantar fascia rather than an inflammation . Various treatment options are available , including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs , corticosteroid injections , orthosis , and physiotherapy . This study compared the effects of local platelet-rich plasma , corticosteroid , and placebo injections in the treatment of chronic plantar fasciitis . In this double-blind study , patients were divided r and omly into 3 groups .  Local injections of platelet-rich plasma , corticosteroid , or normal saline were given . Patients were assessed with the visual analog scale for pain and with the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society ( AOFAS ) Ankle and Hindfoot score before injection , at 3 weeks , and at 3-month follow-up . Mean visual analog scale score in the platelet-rich plasma and corticosteroid groups decreased from 7.44 and 7.72 preinjection to 2.52 and 3.64 at final follow-up , respectively . Mean AOFAS score in the platelet-rich plasma and corticosteroid groups improved from 51.56 and 55.72 preinjection to 88.24 and 81.32 at final follow-up , respectively . There was a significant improvement in visual analog scale score and AOFAS score in the platelet-rich plasma and corticosteroid groups at 3 weeks and at 3-month follow-up . There was no significant improvement in visual analog scale score or AOFAS score in the placebo group at any stage of the study . The authors concluded that local injection of platelet-rich plasma or corticosteroid is an effective treatment option for chronic plantar fasciitis . Platelet-rich plasma injection is as effective as or more effective than corticosteroid injection in treating chronic plantar fasciitis Objectives : Extracorporeal shockwave therapy ( ESWT ) and corticosteroid injection ( CSI ) are treatment options for plantar fasciitis . Their clinical outcome comparison remains a debate . Also , the thickness changes of the plantar fascia on objective evaluation under the medium energy ESWT and CSI therapy are elusive . Methods : A total of 97 patients with chronic plantar fasciitis were enrolled in the r and omized prospect i ve trial . Forty-seven patients received extracorporeal shock wave therapy ( ESWT )  , and fifty patients received corticosteroid injection ( CSI ) . The thickness of the plantar fascia was evaluated respectively before ESWT and CSI , and at the 4th and 12th week after ESWT and CSI by ultrasonography .  Pain level and clinical outcomes were recorded using visual analogue scale ( VAS ) and 100-points scoring systems . Correlation analysis was performed between the thickness change and clinical outcome . Results : Under ultrasonography , we observed more increase of plantar fascia thickness of ESWT group than CSI group at 4th week ( p=0.048 ) . VAS of plantar fasciitis patients receiving ESWT was lower than those who received corticosteroid injection ( 0.001 and p<0.001 , at 4th and 12th week ) . On the assessment of 100-points scoring systems , the pain level of patients with ESWT was lower than those with CSI at the 12th week ( p<0.001 ) . On the other h and , the increase of plantar fascia thickness at 4th week was positively correlated with the decrease of VAS score at 12th week follow-up ( R=0.302 , P=0.039 ) . Conclusions : At 4th week after treatment , the thickness of plantar fascia increased . Then it decreased gradually , but not to the baseline at 12th week . On the pain level outcome at 12th week , extracorporeal shockwave therapy ( ESWT ) was more efficient than corticosteroid injection ( CSI ) on chronic plantar fasciitis . The more change of plantar fascia after ESWT , the more efficient on clinical outcome Background : Plantar fasciitis is one of the most common causes of heel pain . This prospect i ve study compared the efficacy of local injection of corticosteroids vs platelet-rich plasma ( PRP ) in the treatment of plantar fasciitis . Methods : Patients were r and omly allocated into 2 groups of 40 each ( group A and group B ) . Patients were treated with local corticosteroid injection in group A and autologous PRP injection in group B. Clinical assessment was done prior to the injection and at 1 month , 3 months , and 6 months following the injection , which included visual analog pain scale , subjective rating using the modified Roles and Maudsley score , functional outcome score by the Foot and Ankle Outcome Instrument ( FAI ) core scale , and the American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society ( AOFAS ) ankle-hindfoot scale . Radiological assessment was done by measuring the thickness of the plantar fascia using ultrasonography . The mean age , sex , and body mass index of both groups were comparable . Results : Postinjection , there was significant improvement of visual analog score , modified Roles and Maudsley score , FAI core scale , AOFAS ankle-hindfoot score , and plantar fascia thickness in both the groups . However , with the numbers available , no significant difference in improvement could be detected between the above-mentioned variables in the 2 groups . Conclusion : We found that the treatment of plantar fasciitis with steroid or PRP injection was equally effective . Level of Evidence : Level II , prospect i ve r and omized comparative series Introduction Plantar fasciitis is a common cause of heel pain . Considering different interventions which are applied for patients with plantar fasciitis , dry needling is proposed as a new modality of treatment recently . The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of dry needling versus steroid injection for plantar fasciitis . Methods Sixty-six patients were recruited to this single-blind clinical trial study . Participants were r and omly allocated to receive 1 ml ( 40 mg ) of Depo-Medrol ( methylprednisolone acetate ) or dry needling . They were followed up for 12 months and monitored for total perception of pain using the visual analogue scale ( VAS ) , with data obtained in baseline and at three weeks , six weeks , three months , six months and one year after treatment . Results Mean VAS score before treatment was 6.96 ± 0.87 for the steroid group and 6.41 ± 0.83 for the dry-needling group ( P value = 0.54 ) . Steroid injection reduced VAS scores rapidly until three weeks after treatment compared with dry needling ( 0.32 ± 0.71 and 3.47 ± 1.32 , respectively ; P value < 0.001 ) . However , patients who were underwent dry needling reported lower VAS scores at the end of follow-up compared with the steroid group ( 0.69 ± 0.93 and 2.09 ± 1.58 , respectively ; P value = 0.004 ) . Over the long term , 82.3 % and 17.6 % of changes in pain were contributed to time since treatment and treatment method , respectively ( P values < 0.001 ) . Conclusions Steroid injection can palliate plantar heel pain rapidly but dry needling can provide more satisfactory results for patients with plantar fasciitis in the long term Objective : To investigate the effectiveness of a physiotherapy-based exercise program versus dexamethasone injection for chronic plantar fasciopathy in workers st and ing for prolonged periods of time . Design : A parallel group nonblinded r and omized controlled trial with 12-week follow-up . Setting : An outpatient sports medicine clinic in Vancouver , British Columbia , Canada . Participants : Fifty-six workers required to st and for greater than 5 h/d with chronic plantar fasciopathy took part . Diagnosis from a physiotherapist must include signs of structural changes to the plantar fascia seen on ultrasound . Interventions : The PHYSIO group included 7 physiotherapy-led exercises performed daily over a 
    Output:
    
Conclusions Based on the findings of this review , corticosteroid injection is more effective than some comparators for the reduction of pain and the improvement of function in people with plantar heel pain .
However , corticosteroid injection is not more effective than placebo injection for reducing pain or improving function .