Objective: The conservative therapy for chronic plantar fasciitis works for a few patients, while surgical options have drawbacks. Before considering surgical options, transcatheter arterial embolization may help patients with plantar fasciitis who are experiencing discomfort resistant to conservative treatment.
Methods: We report evaluation data of 10 patients treated with transcatheter arterial embolization using imipenem/cilastatin as embolic agents to relieve chronic pain due to plantar fasciitis. All the patients were refractory to conservative therapy.
Results: The technical success of the procedure was found to be 100%. Further, effective pain relief was observed as there was no pain relapse in 6 months, and patients did not require any other form of therapy.
Conclusion: This report warrants further adequately designed randomized clinical studies for evaluating the efficacy of transcatheter arterial embolization in plantar fasciitis.
Advances in knowledge: Resorting to surgical option for chronic pain relief in plantar fasciitis might be reconsidered and replaced with arterial embolization. However, adequately designed long-term clinical studies are required to prove its long-term efficacy.
Keywords: TAE; VAS score; embolization; plantar fasciitis.
© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Institute of Radiology.