Extracorporeal shock wave treatment

On February 08, 2024, the Austrian Institute for HTA (AIHTA) published the 2023 annual HTA report. The report contains AIHTA works, activities, and publications in 2023, including medical technologies belonging to technology groups such as robotic surgery, diagnostic imaging, and neurology.

In October 2023, the annual update of the Swedish procedure coding system (Classification of Health Care Measures, KVÅ) was released to come into force on January 1, 2024. A total of 70 new surgical procedure codes and 17 new medical procedure codes were introduced concerning endoscopy, ENT, men’s health, nephrology and urology, peripheral vascular, and spine.

In November 2022, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published five new Interventional Procedure Guidance (extracorporeal shockwave therapy for calcific tendinopathy in the shoulder, balloon disimpaction of the baby's head at emergency cesarean, percutaneous ultrasound-guided microwave ablation for benign thyroid nodules, ab interno canaloplasty for open-angle glaucoma, tunnelled peritoneal drainage catheter insertion), and two new Medical Technologies Guidance (GreenLight XPS, Optilume). Also, one new clinical guideline was published, and one was updated.

On the 19th of April of 2018, the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) was able to reassess previously excluded use of extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) in the indication of heel pain in plantar fasciitis on a current scientific basis and decided that ESWT will be used in out-patient settings in the future.

Recently the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWIG) published final report of evaluation extracorporeal shock wave therapy in patients with heel pain. On 31st of May, the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) requested manufacturers for notification of their devices for extracorporeal shock wave therapy before final decision will be given.

The Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWIG) published final report of evaluation of extracorporeal shock wave therapy in patients with heel. Results demonstrated benefit of the extracorporeal treatment in comparison with placebo, ultrasound and iontophoresis.