What is TECAR therapy and does the evidence support it?

What is TECAR therapy and how does it actually work?

TECAR passes a radiofrequency current through tissue so that heat is generated inside it rather than applied to the surface. Two modes exist: capacitive, using an insulated electrode that concentrates energy in skin and muscle, and resistive, using an uninsulated electrode that reaches denser tissue such as tendon, fascia and bone. Frequencies are typically 0.3 to 1.2 MHz - a device specification, not a trial-derived number.

The measured physiological effects are modest and mostly thermal. A systematic review of 30 studies across physiotherapy and sports settings reported increased skin temperature, enhanced skin and muscle blood perfusion, and a rise in oxyhaemoglobin, while rating the overall methodological quality of the included work only Good/Fair on the PEDro scale and finding the literature too inconsistent for quantitative pooling (De Sousa-De Sousa et al., 2021). That is the honest ceiling of the mechanism claim: better local blood flow and tissue temperature for a window of time after the session. Anything beyond that - claims about tendon regeneration, collagen remodelling or accelerated healing - goes past what the published measurements support. Most trials alternate both modes within a single treatment, so the evidence base describes a combined application rather than either mode in isolation.

Does the evidence actually support TECAR therapy?

Partly, and with low certainty. A meta-analysis of controlled studies found TECAR reduced musculoskeletal pain versus control with a standardised mean difference of -1.04 (95% CI -1.59 to -0.48) at four weeks and -1.80 (95% CI -2.15 to -1.46) at eight weeks. Both pooled results carried heterogeneity of I2 = 86.9% and 87% (Vahdatpour et al., 2022).

That heterogeneity figure is the part most marketing pages leave out, and it matters more than the effect size. When trials disagree that violently, the pooled average describes the literature, not what will happen to you. The best-designed single trial available is sham-controlled: 22 male professional athletes with chronic adductor-related groin pain, eleven per arm, all doing stretching exercises, with ten sessions of real or sham TECAR. Pain fell substantially more in the real group, Cohen's d = -2.153 after ten sessions and still -1.96 one month later, and hip adduction range improved (d = 0.908, p = 0.03). But the other secondary outcomes - strength and most questionnaire subscales - showed no significant difference, and 22 participants at a single centre is a small, fragile sample (Nazari et al., 2025).

Which problems is TECAR most likely to help, and where is it weakest?

The clearest signals are in chronic low back pain, adductor-related groin pain and adhesive capsulitis. Adding TECAR to a manual therapy protocol in 60 adults with chronic non-specific low back pain produced better pain and disability scores than manual therapy alone at two weeks and at one-month follow-up, but no extra gain in lumbo-pelvic mobility (Kasimis et al., 2023).

Adhesive capsulitis shows the same pattern of symptom change without structural change. In 60 patients randomised to conventional care with or without six TECAR sessions over two weeks, the TECAR group improved more on pain and on the Shoulder Pain and Disability Index at one and three months; bicipital effusion fell in both groups, and supraspinatus tendon thickness did not change significantly in either (Uzun et al., 2025). Read that carefully: the tissue on ultrasound looked the same, the symptoms did not. TECAR appears to modulate pain and make movement more tolerable, which is genuinely useful, but it is not remodelling anything. It is weakest as a stand-alone intervention, weakest where the driver is load management or strength deficit, and irrelevant where the diagnosis itself is wrong.

How many TECAR sessions before I know whether it is working?

Six to ten. Published protocols used six sessions over two weeks (Uzun et al., 2025; Kasimis et al., 2023) and ten sessions in the sham-controlled groin trial (Nazari et al., 2025). If nothing has measurably changed by session four or five, the plan should change rather than continue. That reassessment threshold is clinical convention, not a trial-derived number.

This is the reason no session packages are sold here. A package converts a treatment decision into a financial commitment made before any information exists, and it removes the single most useful thing a clinician can do, which is stop. Each session is booked and paid separately at 480 ILS. If TECAR is helping, you will usually notice it in how the first 24 hours after a session feel, not during the session itself - warmth is pleasant and proves nothing. If two or three sessions produce no change in your tolerance of the movements that matter to you, the working diagnosis or the loading plan is what needs revisiting, not the machine settings.

What decides when I can return to sport or full training?

Criteria, not the calendar and not the session count. Four things decide it: how the area feels 24 hours after a loaded session, side-to-side strength symmetry, tolerance of the specific demand you are returning to, and control at speed. No published trial has shown that TECAR shortens tissue healing time - only that it can reduce pain within a rehab programme.

Notice what every trial cited on this page has in common: TECAR was added to something. Stretching exercises in the groin study, a manual therapy protocol in the low back study, exercise plus hot pack and TENS in the adhesive capsulitis study. Not one of them tested TECAR delivered alone, so nobody can honestly tell you it works alone. The defensible way to use it is as a window: heat and analgesia that make the loading you actually need more tolerable that day. If the loading never happens, the window closes on nothing. Anyone promising you a fixed number of weeks to return, before examining you and before seeing how you respond to load, is guessing.

What happens at a first visit, and what does it cost?

480 ILS flat, VAT included, for a 50 to 60 minute private one-to-one session. No referral needed, no deposit. The visit is assessment first - history, physical testing, a working diagnosis, and a plan you leave with. TECAR is used only if that assessment says it fits. The machine is a tool inside the session, not the reason for it.

The clinician is Alejandro Zubrisky, BPT, Israel Ministry of Health licence 10-120163, ORCID 0009-0003-1069-937X, at Yaakov Apter 9, Tel Aviv. Cancellation requires 48 hours notice by WhatsApp; a no-show without notice is charged in full. Several things are deliberately not offered here, and it is fairer to say so before you book than after: no shockwave or ESWT, no injections, no surgery, no telemedicine, no home visits, no group classes. The clinic also does not treat fibromyalgia, pregnancy-related or pelvic floor conditions, vestibular disorders, children under 12, or neurological rehabilitation. If your problem sits in one of those categories, you will be told at first contact rather than sold an appointment.

When should I see a doctor instead of a physiotherapist?

See a physician first if you have fever with the pain, unexplained weight loss, night pain that wakes you and does not change with position, loss of bladder or bowel control, saddle numbness, progressively worsening weakness in a limb, a personal history of cancer, or pain following significant trauma. Those are referral flags, not physiotherapy problems.

TECAR also has hard contraindications that come from device manufacturers and general electrotherapy practice rather than from clinical trials: an implanted pacemaker or other active electronic device, active malignancy in the treated region, pregnancy, active infection, deep vein thrombosis, and impaired sensation in the target area, since a patient who cannot feel heat cannot report that it is too much. Metal implants require a case-by-case judgement made in the room with the implant details in front of us, never over a message. Declare implants, devices and current medications before the first session. If any of the flags above apply to you, book with a physician and come here afterwards with a diagnosis rather than instead of one.

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