Night splint treatment for plantar fasciitis - A prospective randomized study

A prospective randomized study of 116 patients with plantar fasciitis was p erformed to determine the effectiveness of adjuvant night splint therapy in relieving the acute symptoms of plantar fasciitis, Patients were randomize d into one of two groups, Patients in Group 1 were treated with 1 month of oral antiinflammatory medication, Achilles stretching exercises, and shoe r ecommendations, Patients in Group 2 received identical treatment but also u sed a dorsiflexion night splint for 3 months. Blinded clinical review of pa tients was performed at 4, 6, and 12 weeks. Health status data Short Form 3 6 also was collected at these times and again at an average 19 months of fo llowup, Overall, 68% of patients reported improvement with this nonoperativ e protocol for a 12-week period. No statistical difference was seen with th e presence or absence of a night splint. In addition, no differences in imp rovement rates were observed with gender, duration of antecedent symptoms, the presence of bilateral symptoms, or the presence of a heel spur, Age old er than 45 years did prove to be a statistically significant poor prognosti c factor for improvement at the 12-week follow-up, Short Form 36 data obtai ned at baseline showed significantly lowered perception of health when comp ared with age matched controls. Patients in both treatment groups had signi ficant improvement in Short Form 36 scores with 12 weeks of conservative ca re.