NCT05868577

Infracalcaneal Peppering Injection Technique for Chronic Plantar Fasciitis

Infracalcaneal Peppering Injection Technique for Chronic Plantar Fasciitis: Protocol for a Parallel Randomized Clinical Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 1
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 41 (actual)
• Sponsor: Wake Forest University Health Sciences · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Although no single treatment has shown superiority, short-term pain relief may be offered via a targeted local corticosteroid injection (CSI), used often in combination with local anesthetic (LA), which may reduce plantar fasciitis symptoms for up to 1 month. Moreover, administering a CSI is relatively quick and easy for any Provider to perform, though it is not without potential deleterious side effects and risks, including fibroblast degradation, fat pad atrophy, skin depigmentation, and even plantar fascia rupture.

Detailed description

Research performed in other musculoskeletal disorders (e.g. lateral epicondylitis) suggest that the "method" (i.e peppering vs single bolus deposition) of injection is more favorable than the steroid itself, though evidence for this positive effect in plantar fasciitis is rather scarce. Injection via peppering is a minimally invasive percutaneous technique which involves repeatedly fenestrating the pathologic site (i.e. plantar fascia) via hypodermic needle insertion at the tender area, then sequentially injecting a substance, withdrawing, redirecting, and reinserting all without emerging from the skin. Though hypothetical, this technique is thought to disrupt the degenerative process of Plantar Fasciitis (PF), encouraging both localized bleeding and fibroblastic proliferation and stimulating a local inflammatory response that would trigger the body's own reparative mechanism, leading to recovery.

Conditions

• Chronic Plantar Fasciitis

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DRUG	Corticosteroid injection (CSI) with local anesthetic (LA)	The PI will then administer the injection using an infracalcaneal needle peppering
DRUG	Local anesthetic (LA) with Saline injection	The PI will then administer the injection using an infracalcaneal needle peppering

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-10-18
• Primary completion: 2024-09-18
• Completion: 2024-09-18
• First posted: 2023-05-22
• Last updated: 2025-10-30
• Results posted: 2025-10-30

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States

Regulatory

• FDA-regulated drug study