Background: The competitive environment of athletics has promoted the exploration of any technology application that may offer an edge with performance and recovery from injury. Ischemic therapy is one such technology that has rapidly been incorporated into training rooms and physical therapy clinics worldwide. This therapy modality is reported to increase an athlete's ability to improve muscle mass, strength, and endurance.
Purpose: To provide the sports medicine physician with an understanding of the current state of ischemic therapy technology, including treatment specifications, known physiological effects, hypothesized mechanisms, biochemical effects, athletic applications, medical applications, animal models, and future research recommendations.
Study design: Literature review.
Methods: A computer-based search of the PubMed database was used to perform a comprehensive literature review on musculoskeletal ischemic therapy.
Results: The current research on ischemic therapy is largely composed of case series with varying equipment, methods, and therapy specifications. The publication of case series has value in identifying this technology for future research, but the results of these studies should not be justification for application to athletes without validation of safety and effectiveness.
Conclusion: To date, ischemic therapy remains unvalidated, and the mechanism by which it improves muscle performance is not clear.
Keywords: BFRT; KAATSU; RRMBF; blood flow restriction; muscle hypertrophy; occlusion therapy; repetitive restriction of muscle blood blow; stem cell activation.