Electrotherapy for Recovery & Rehabilitation.

ltsportinjury
Nov 25, 2025
2 min read

What is electrotherapy?

Electrotherapy is the use of electrical energy as a medical treatment, you may have seen them or heard of them, they are another tool practitioners used to help with recovery just like massage, this can be for sport injuries such as ruptured ACL or non sport injuries, such as back pain from gardening. As a sport injury practitioner the electrotherapy I used in my clinic are: laser, therapeutic ultrasound, interferential and shortwave.

Some treatments produce warmth to the injured area and some may not produce any.

Electrotherapy is part of the treatment plan, just like massage or acupuncture, it is not the whole answer just part of the recovery and rehabilitation. It’s important it is

used at the right place, at the right time for the right reason.

Shortwave dome head being placed over the back of the thigh, with the client lying face down wearing navy trousers. The practisers hands are hold both sides of the shortwave dome. — Shortwave treatment

What are the benefits of electrotherapy?

Electrotherapy helps the body brake down scar tissue, aids tissue repair, reduces inflammation, wound healing, and pain relief to speed up recovery.

The four treatment types I use in my clinic are:

LASER

THERAPEUTIC ULTRASOUND

SHORTWAVE

INTERFERRENTAL

Laser- Also known as low level light therapy. This is a non invasive treatment, using a cluster head device that is placed directly on to the skin. It doesn’t produce any heat or vibrations. Low level laser beams pass into the tissues and are absorbed sending a message

to the injured area to stimulate and accelerate repair.

Laser is used for pain relief, wound healing and can be used as an anti-inflammatory.

Therapeutic Ultrasound- The device has a quartz crystal in the head which is vibrated to produce sound waves. The treatment head is placed

onto the skin via a gel.

Ultrasound device placed on the side of the knee — Ultrasound treatment

This allows the head to be moved constantly. The sound waves oscillate and can produce a type of micro massage to the tissue. This can be beneficial if the area is too sore to be massaged by hand. Therapeutic Ultrasound can produce a thermal effect. It can also help with injury recovery by increasing blood flow to the area. Another use is it can help the body break down scar tissue.

Shortwave- Uses electro-magnetic energy to produce a current in the tissues. A dome head is placed over the area, this can be done over clothes as well as bandages and casts. It can encourage blood flow to the area. Benefits are an increase in repair and rebuilding cells. It can help inflammation and encourages absorption of heamatoma. It can produce thermal or non- thermal effects.

Interferential- Uses an electoral current to provide three uses: Pain relief, stimulation and increase blood flow. For pain relief two sticky pads will be placed on the skin in the correct position, a current will develop. There may be some tingling to start with and then some contractions. It works by blocking pain signals to the brain, allowing the area/joint to be moved. The second use is stimulation, sometime muscle atrophy can develop if the joint hasn’t been used due to injury. Stimulating the muscle can help strengthen it.

A sticky pad being placed on a women's shoulder as part of interferential treatment, with an electrotherapy machine in the background — Interferential treatment

If you think electrotherapy could help you or if you would like to discuss it further please get in touch here. electrotherapy for recovery & rehabilitation for sport injuries