This episode breaks down a 2026 Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology prospective case series evaluating transarterial embolization (TAE) as a minimally invasive treatment for chronic, refractory plantar heel pain. The study explores how targeting abnormal blood vessel growth may offer relief for patients who have exhausted traditional therapies.
- Clinical Problem: Nearly half of patients with plantar fasciitis remain symptomatic even after 10 years, and no single conservative treatment has consistently outperformed the others.
- New Approach: Rather than treating the plantar fascia itself, TAE targets the abnormal neovessels that sustain chronic inflammation and pain.
- Headline Result: At six months, 71% of patients responded to treatment, with major improvements in pain, quality of life, function, and a complete elimination of missed workdays among affected participants.
- Safety Profile: The procedure was performed as an outpatient with zero reported major adverse events and no evidence of osteonecrosis or tissue injury on follow-up MRI.
- Caveat: This was a small, single-center case series without a control group, so larger randomized trials are still needed to confirm how much of the benefit comes from embolization itself.
- Bottom Line: For patients with chronic plantar heel pain who have failed standard treatments, transarterial embolization is emerging as a promising minimally invasive option that could reshape how we approach chronic musculoskeletal pain.
Tune in to learn how interventional radiology is taking on one of the most frustrating conditions in sports medicine.
This podcast is generated using an AI model that has been trained in the context of endovascular surgery and interventional radiology in addition context of the article cited below. The content was reviewed and edited by multiple healthcare professionals in the field.
Gill S, Hely R, Harrison B, Hely A, Landers S. Transarterial embolization to improve plantar heel pain: 6-month results from a prospective case series. J Vasc Interv Radiol. 2026;37:108688. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvir.2026.108688