Durable Pain Relief with Plantar Fasciitis Embolization: Outcomes from a Multi-Institutional Real-World Cohort

Purpose: To evaluate the real-world role of plantar fasciitis embolization (PFE) in patients with plantar fasciitis by comparing recurrence rates against matched controls using a large, multi-institutional cohort.

Materials and Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study utilizing the TriNetX Analytics Network. We examined patients with plantar fasciitis treated with plantar fasciitis embolization (PFE) versus those without PFE via ICD-10 diagnostic coding. Patients with vascular disease, diabetes complications, vascular injury, hemorrhage, pregnancy, coagulation defects, foot fractures, tarsal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, or Charcot’s joint were excluded. Propensity score matching (1:1) adjusting for age, sex, diagnoses, and medications was used to reduce selection bias related to differences in baseline features. Clinical success was determined by recurrence of plantar fasciitis (ICD-10: M72.2) coding following the cohort’s index event (plantar fasciitis and PFE).

Results: After matching, 1,133 patients were included in each group. PFE patients experienced significantly lower recurrence risk with 12.0% at 3 months to 17.0% at 18 months compared to controls ranging from 29.9% at 3 months to 38.6% at 18 months. Hazard ratios favored PFE at every interval (HR range, 0.367-0.395; all 95% CI [0.301-0.468]). Recurrence rates remained after 12 months in the PFE group, whereas controls continued to show progressive recurrence.

Conclusion: In this large, real-world cohort, PFE was associated with a lower rate of recurrent plantar fasciitis compared with matched controls amongst the various time frames measured. These findings support the need for prospective randomized trials to establish the role of PFE in clinical practice.

During the preparation of this work, the author(s) used ChatGPT (GPT-5, OpenAI, 2025) in order to check grammar and spelling. After using this tool, the author(s) reviewed and edited the work and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the abstract.