Treatments and gadgets. 15 minute read.
Massage guns: what they help with, what they do not, and where not to use one
By the PocketPhysio editorial team. Published 2026-10-01.
What a massage gun is actually doing
A massage gun is a motor and a handle with a head that hits the same patch of skin over and over. The reviews that have tested these devices describe them by numbers instead of by name: how far the head travels, how fast it moves, and how long it is held against the muscle. In one systematic review of 13 studies in 255 adults, the head traveled 10 to 16 mm in the 12 studies that reported it, the device ran at 30 to 53 Hz in the 10 that reported a frequency, and in the 9 studies that gave a single application the treatment lasted anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 minutes (Sams and colleagues, 2023).
The neurosurgical case report cited further down this page lists current devices at stall forces of about 16 to 36 kg (35 to 80 lb), stroke lengths of 5 to 16 mm, and up to 3,200 oscillations a minute (Romiyo and colleagues, 2025). That is the treatment. The rest is a battery and a bag of rubber attachments.
What those pulses do inside the muscle is not settled, and nobody selling one should pretend otherwise. The outcome studies measure whether a joint moves further, whether a jump is higher, whether a muscle feels less sore, and whether a blood marker of muscle damage falls. They do not measure fascia being released or knots being broken up, and no paper on this page tested either idea.
Does a massage gun help with muscle soreness?
This is the claim the devices are sold on, and the newest synthesis does not support it. A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis took 12 randomized trials in 393 people, all published between 2023 and 2025, and looked only at recovery after exercise hard enough to damage muscle. For delayed onset muscle soreness it pooled 17 effect sizes from those trials and found a standardized difference of 0.14 (95% confidence interval -0.19 to 0.48, p value 0.40), which is no difference, and it graded the certainty of that evidence very low (Zhu and colleagues, 2026). The trials disagreed with each other heavily on that outcome, with heterogeneity of 83%.
The same review did find something, which is worth being fair about. Creatine kinase, a blood marker that rises when muscle is damaged, came out lower after percussive treatment, pooled from 7 effect sizes at a standardized difference of -0.87 (-1.57 to -0.17), at very low certainty.
A lower blood marker and unchanged soreness is a strange pair, and it is the kind of result that tells you to wait. The authors' own conclusion is the honest version: percussive therapy "may improve explosive performance recovery and reduce early creatine kinase levels, but current evidence does not support clear benefits for maximum strength recovery or soreness relief."
An older review reaches a different place on pain, and the difference is in what it was measuring. Four of its 13 studies looked at pain rather than post-exercise soreness, and all four are small. Two treated back pain over weeks, five times a week for three weeks in bus drivers who were also given ergonomic advice, and three times a week for two weeks with the setting turned up as the course went on.
The third was a case report of one 77-year-old woman after rotator cuff repair, treated twice a week for four weeks, published without statistics, and she took cannabidiol oil in the first week. The fourth gave one treatment to painful hamstrings and reported less pain, in people who had been treated by other means 15 days earlier (Sams and colleagues, 2023). Pain fell in all of them, and none of it answers whether your legs ache less two days after a long run.
What it does not change
The firmest finding in this literature is a negative one, and it comes with the best certainty rating of any result here. For recovering maximum voluntary strength after hard exercise, the 2026 meta-analysis pooled 8 effect sizes and found a standardized difference of 0.12 (-0.10 to 0.34, p value 0.28), at moderate certainty (Zhu and colleagues, 2026). Nothing.
Jump performance is the one performance outcome that moved. Pooled from 13 effect sizes, countermovement jump recovery favored percussive treatment at a standardized difference of 0.78 (0.26 to 1.29), though at low certainty, and when the authors adjusted that analysis for the possibility of missing studies the estimate dropped to 0.49 with an interval from -0.04 to 1.02, which crosses no effect. So the one positive performance result is also the least stable one.
One more thing from the same paper, because it cuts both ways. In its exploratory dose analysis the longest sessions, over 5 minutes on one muscle group, went with the largest jump recovery effects and with higher soreness scores, which is a trade-off rather than a setting to copy, and its authors say plainly that the dose findings are preliminary and not thresholds to follow (Zhu and colleagues, 2026).
Used before training, the picture is clearer again. A systematic review of 11 studies in 281 participants, 10 of them at moderate risk of bias and one at high risk, concluded that massage guns "can help to improve short-term range of motion, flexibility and recovery-related outcomes, but their use in strength, balance, acceleration, agility and explosive activities is not recommended" (Ferreira and colleagues, 2023). Its authors also say not to use one in the 5 minutes before a strength activity.
Range of motion, and the comparison most pages leave out
Range of motion is where these devices do something measurable. Ten of the 13 studies in the 2023 review measured flexibility, in the back, the lower body and the shoulder, and the review reports improvement in every area tested. Seven of those gave a single treatment, and all seven found a significant gain straight afterwards (Sams and colleagues, 2023).
Then comes the finding that should be on every page about these devices and almost never is. One of the studies in that review, a controlled trial in 20 healthy adults, compared the device against a plain static calf stretch: ankle movement improved in both groups, with no difference between them. In the review's words, static stretching "was as effective as a single treatment" of percussive therapy for increasing flexibility. A stretch costs nothing, needs no charging, and matched the device in that trial.
Two more things about that finding. It was measured minutes after treatment, not the next day, so it describes a short window rather than a lasting change in a stiff joint. And neither of the two earlier reviews pooled its studies at all: the 2023 review says the variety of methods and device settings "makes it difficult to draw overall conclusions on the studies included", and its included studies scored between 2 and 9 on the PEDro quality scale, with a mean of 5.92 and a standard deviation of 2.1.
The things people search for that it does not treat
Type "does a massage gun help" into a search box and the suggestions that come back are sciatica, a pinched nerve, plantar fasciitis or cramp. None of those has a trial behind it. The searches for this page found no study of a massage gun for sciatica, for a trapped nerve in the leg, for plantar heel pain or for cramp, and the studies that do exist are mostly flexibility and recovery work in healthy young adults.
The reason matters more than the absence. Sciatica is pain generated by an irritated or compressed nerve, usually at the spine, and the muscle you can reach with a device in your hand is downstream of that. Plantar heel pain responds to loading the calf and the foot over weeks, which is a slow, dull process that a device cannot shortcut. Our sciatica program and plantar fasciitis program set out what does have support, and buttock pain that refers down the leg covers the other common reason for that pattern.
There is a second cost to treating these at home. A leg that is numb, weak or getting worse is a reason to be assessed, not buzzed, and the warning list below sets out which signs need help the same day and which need emergency services.
Where not to use one
This is the part of the page that earns its place, and the clearest published list comes from the 2023 systematic review of 11 studies. Be clear about what that list is: the authors assemble it in a section of their discussion from seven cited sources, rather than from the studies they reviewed, so it is collected guidance and not a trial finding (Ferreira and colleagues, 2023).
Not over a limb that might have a blood clot. The review names deep-vein thrombosis and clotting disorders, because the pressure might dislodge a clot. The NHS lists a throbbing pain in one leg, usually in the calf or thigh, swelling, skin that is red, blue or darker than usual, and swollen veins, and tells you to get urgent help if you think you have one.
So do not massage or roll a calf or thigh that has become swollen, warm, tender, red or darker than usual, or painful in a way that does not match your training. Get medical advice the same day, as this can be a blood clot, and call emergency services if you are also short of breath or have chest pain. The warning list below gives the full set of signs.
Not on a recent fracture, and not on thin bones. The same review lists recent fractures and long-term bone conditions such as osteoporosis, on the grounds that the force can interfere with healing or raise the risk of a fracture.
Not on skin that cannot feel properly. The review puts diabetes and nerve pain in its list because loss of sensation stops you noticing further injury, which is also the standard rule in diabetic foot care. If you cannot feel the pressure, you cannot judge it, and a bruise or a broken patch of skin on a numb foot can become a wound that is slow to heal. So with diabetes or reduced feeling in the feet, keep any percussive device off the feet altogether, and get new foot pain, a blister, a cut or a sore checked by your own doctor or foot team the same day instead of treating it at home. That last part is standard diabetic foot care rather than a massage gun finding.
Not on the neck, the head or the face. The collected list names all three, and the same list says that repeated, aggressive use over one area can cause blood vessel dissections as well as muscle fiber damage and internal bleeding, so the warning does not rest only on the cases below (Ferreira and colleagues, 2023).
The cases are worth reading anyway. A neurosurgical report describes a 65-year-old man who used a handheld percussion device on his neck after an easy session on a stationary bike, became dizzy and sick with tingling in the fingertips of both hands, and was found to have a torn right vertebral artery with a clot in it and a small acute stroke in the cerebellum. A month later the artery was healing, but he was still reporting dizziness and headache (Romiyo and colleagues, 2025). Two caveats belong with it: the authors could not fully rule out a tear that happened on its own or with the exercise, though they judged both less likely, and the device was a 1950s model running at 3,600 to 7,200 oscillations a minute against a maximum of 3,200 on current ones.
What stops those caveats settling it is the rest of that paper's literature review. Three cases of a torn vertebral artery after a percussive device had been published before this one: one in a 27-year-old woman with 2 weeks of dizziness who had been using a modern handheld massage gun regularly, and 2 in people using massage chairs or pillows. So a modern device is in that list too.
Nobody has measured whether these devices can generate the pull it takes to tear a vertebral artery, and the case authors say so. Those same authors read the small number of reported cases as a sign that the neck muscles and the spine protect most everyday users, so this is a reason to keep a device off your neck rather than a common event. Four published cases is not a rate, and this is not a part of the body to work it out on. If any sign of a stroke appears, the warning list below sets the level, and that level is emergency services, even if it goes away.
Not on the eyelids either. In a separate report, a man in his sixties with diabetes used a percussion gun on his closed eyelids for about 10 minutes at a time, 2 or 3 times a day for 3 days, to relieve dry eyes. He dislocated the lens in both eyes and developed severe glaucoma, needing surgery on both, and recovered his vision after it (Chen and colleagues, 2026). The authors of that report say these devices "should not be applied to the eyelids or periorbital regions". If an eye becomes painful or red after any device has been near it, your vision blurs, or you see rings around bright lights with a headache or sickness, do not wait: the warning list below puts that at emergency level.
Not hard, and not for long. A case report in the journal Physical Therapy describes a 25-year-old woman with untreated mild iron deficiency anemia whose coach used a percussion gun on both her thighs for close to 10 minutes, without asking about her health first, straight after she had cycled for about 30 minutes on each of 2 days in a row. Her thighs hurt that evening, and 2 days later her urine was dark brown; by then both thighs were tender and covered in bruises. Her creatine kinase was over 30,000 units per liter against a normal range of 24 to 195, and she needed intravenous fluids in hospital for rhabdomyolysis, the breakdown of muscle tissue into the bloodstream (Chen and colleagues, 2021).
That is why dark pee after exercise, and a muscle that becomes badly swollen, extremely painful or too weak to use, are in the warning list below at emergency level. An emergency department straight away, not a wait and see.
Not over the abdomen. And if you take medicine that thins your blood, ask your prescriber before using a percussive device anywhere.
A case report describes a man in his late fifties who was in hospital with complications of COVID-19, including clots in the veins of both legs and acute kidney injury, and was being treated with blood-thinning injections and tablets. A percussive device was brought in and used repeatedly over the spot where those injections were given, to ease the soreness there. Three days later he developed severe abdominal pain, and a scan found a bleed into the abdominal wall measuring 14 by 17 cm. It pressed on both tubes draining the kidneys, blocked the flow of urine so that drains had to be put into both kidneys, and he had a cardiac arrest and died on day 17 of that admission.
The report does not say the device caused his death, and nor does this page. Its stated conclusion is narrower: these devices "should be considered as a cause of or contributor to RSHs, particularly in patients who are receiving anticoagulation therapy", RSH being a bleed into the sheath around the abdominal muscles (Kwon, 2024). If you take one of those medicines, the question about the device goes to your prescriber, and the medicine itself is not something to adjust yourself.
Not over broken or infected skin, fresh bruising, or an implant. The review's list adds open wounds, sunburn, rashes, bleeding, skin infections, superficial nerves or vessels, surgical sites or a joint replacement, and it names pregnancy, a hernia, high blood pressure, epilepsy or seizures, migraines, fibromyalgia, cancer or a tumor, and an implanted medicine pump or medical device such as a pacemaker as reasons to ask a clinician first. Its fracture entry covers rheumatoid arthritis alongside osteoporosis.
How to use one sensibly, if you have one
Keep it on muscle, away from bone and joints, away from the neck and head, and keep sessions short. UCLA Health's patient article gives 2 minutes per muscle group in a session as a ceiling and 10 to 30 seconds on one area while you are getting used to it, and the 2026 meta-analysis found sessions over 5 minutes per muscle group came out worse for soreness rather than better, while saying clearly that its dose findings are preliminary (Zhu and colleagues, 2026). Start on the lowest setting and keep the pressure gentle: the review that collected the cautions suggests around 4 to 6 out of 10 for discomfort, with the head moving rather than parked in one spot (Ferreira and colleagues, 2023). Pressure hard enough to bruise is past the point where any trial was measuring, and bruising was the first sign in the rhabdomyolysis case.
The honest way to use one is as something that may make a tight leg feel better for the next few minutes while you get on with the part that changes things. That is not a criticism of the device. It is just a much smaller job than the one it is sold for.
Where it fits beside the work that changes things
Extra range of motion for a few minutes has its uses, and a static stretch matched the device for that in the one review that compared them (Sams and colleagues, 2023). Strength and control, plus the amount of load a limb can tolerate, are what change a painful muscle or joint over weeks. The only performance measure that moved in any of the syntheses here was jump recovery straight after a hard session, at low certainty, and that is a different thing.
If your muscles are sore after a hard session, muscle soreness or injury explains how to tell ordinary soreness from something that needs looking at. For a sore back, which is where the two multi-week pain studies in the 2023 review were done, our low back pain program has the staged work. For a knee with arthritis, knee osteoarthritis is the one with guideline support behind it.
When to see a physio (physical therapist)
If the pain you are pointing the device at has not been assessed. An hour with someone who tests the leg, loads it and watches you move tells you which tissue is sore and what it can tolerate, and that answer shapes everything you do next in a way no handheld device can.
Book sooner if a leg or arm is numb, weak or getting worse, if pain wakes you at night, if a calf is swollen or warm, or if the same muscle has felt tight for months despite everything you have tried on it. The warning list below sets the speed for each of those, and for several of them a physio is not the right first call.
See a doctor promptly if
- Emergency: any sign of a stroke, even if it goes away. That means a face that droops on one side, an arm you cannot lift or keep up, slurred or muddled speech, weakness or numbness on one side of your body or face, sudden blurred vision, double vision or loss of sight, trouble swallowing, sudden dizziness with unsteadiness or falling over, a sudden severe headache, or a sudden fall where your legs give way but you do not black out (a drop attack). Call emergency services straight away.
- Emergency: pain, tingling, numbness or weakness in both legs, numbness or altered feeling around your genitals or bottom, or new trouble peeing or controlling your bladder or bowels. Call emergency services or go to an emergency department straight away. These can be signs of pressure on the nerves at the base of the spine (cauda equina syndrome).
- Emergency: dark pee (brown, red or tea-colored) after exercise, or muscles that become badly swollen, extremely painful or too weak to use, are not normal soreness. Go to an emergency department straight away, as these can be signs of serious muscle damage (rhabdomyolysis).
- Emergency: sudden intense eye pain, a red eye, tenderness around the eye, blurred vision, rainbow-colored rings around bright lights, a headache, or feeling sick and being sick. Go to an emergency department or call emergency services, and do not drive yourself. These can be signs of a sudden rise in pressure inside the eye (acute angle closure glaucoma), which needs treatment quickly. Say if you have used a percussive device on or near your eyes.
- Same day: a calf or thigh that is newly swollen, warm, tender, red or darker than usual, has swollen veins that are sore to touch, or has a throbbing or cramping pain that does not fit your injury or condition, or that feels different from normal muscle soreness after exercise. Do not massage or roll it. This can be a sign of a blood clot (deep vein thrombosis), especially after surgery, an injury, time in a cast or boot, a long trip or a spell of being much less mobile than usual. Get medical advice the same day. If you are also short of breath or have chest pain, call emergency services.
- Same day: severe or spreading tummy pain, a new tender lump or swelling in your tummy wall, or bruising that keeps spreading, if you take medicine that thins your blood. Get medical advice the same day, and say if a percussive device has been used over the area. If the pain is severe, the swelling is growing, or you feel faint, dizzy or short of breath, go to an emergency department or call emergency services, as this can be bleeding into the wall of the tummy.
- Same day: a leg or foot that is getting weaker, for example your foot drags, catches on the ground or slaps down when you walk (foot drop). Get medical advice the same day. If the weakness is getting worse by the hour, go to an emergency department.
Common questions
Does a massage gun help with muscle soreness?
The most recent meta-analysis says no. A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis of 12 randomized trials in 393 people pooled 17 effect sizes from those trials for delayed onset muscle soreness and found a standardized difference of 0.14 (95% confidence interval -0.19 to 0.48, p value 0.40), which is no difference, and graded the certainty of that evidence very low (Zhu and colleagues, 2026). An earlier systematic review of 13 studies in 255 adults found less pain in 2 small studies that treated back pain over weeks, one of them in bus drivers who were also given ergonomic advice, and in a single case report of one 77-year-old woman treated twice a week for 4 weeks after rotator cuff repair, which published no statistics and whose patient also took cannabidiol oil; that is a different question from soreness after a hard session, and that review pooled nothing at all, because the methods and the device settings varied too much (Sams and colleagues, 2023). In the 2026 review's exploratory dose analysis, sessions longer than 5 minutes on one muscle group came out worse for soreness rather than better, and its authors say those dose findings are preliminary and should not be read as thresholds to follow. A device that feels pleasant on a sore thigh is not the same as a device that shortens the soreness.
Does a massage gun help with sciatica or a pinched nerve?
No trial of a massage gun for sciatica or for a trapped nerve in the leg was found while this page was written. Sciatica is pain from a nerve being irritated or compressed, usually at the spine, so a device working on the muscle of the buttock or the back of the thigh is not reaching where the problem starts. Treating a numb or weak leg at home also risks delay, and that is the real cost. Pain, tingling, numbness or weakness in both legs, numbness around your genitals or bottom, new trouble peeing, and a leg or foot that is getting weaker all need urgent medical assessment, at the speed set out in the warning list on our sciatica page. If your leg pain has been assessed and is settling, the staged exercise work on that page is the part with evidence behind it.
Is a massage gun good for plantar fasciitis?
Nothing was found that tested one on plantar fasciitis. The searches for this page turned up no trial of a massage gun for plantar heel pain, and the systematic reviews of these devices do not contain one, because their studies are mostly in healthy young adults measuring flexibility and recovery (Sams and colleagues, 2023; Ferreira and colleagues, 2023). A hard percussive head under a painful heel also sits close to several of the situations those review authors list as ones to avoid, including a recent fracture, thin bones and skin that cannot feel properly. What does have research behind it for this problem is calf and foot loading, which is set out in our plantar fasciitis program. If you have diabetes or reduced feeling in your feet, keep any percussive device off the foot altogether and get new foot pain checked by your own doctor or foot team.
Where should you not use a massage gun?
The clearest list comes from a 2023 systematic review, which assembles it in the discussion from seven cited sources rather than from its own included studies, so read it as collected guidance and not as a trial result (Ferreira and colleagues, 2023): recent scars, open wounds, sunburn, rashes, bruises, bleeding or skin infections; recent fractures or long-term bone conditions such as osteoporosis or rheumatoid arthritis, because the force can interfere with healing or raise the risk of a fracture; deep-vein thrombosis or a clotting disorder, because the pressure might dislodge a clot; diabetes and nerve pain, where loss of feeling stops you noticing further injury; the face, eyes, ears, head, neck, chest, spine, superficial nerves and vessels, and sites of surgery or a joint replacement; repeated, aggressive work over one area for long periods, with more than 30 minutes as its own example; and, in its separate group of reasons to ask a clinician first rather than avoid outright, pregnancy, a hernia, high blood pressure, migraines, fibromyalgia, epilepsy or seizures, cancer or a tumor, and an implanted pacemaker or medicine pump. Published case reports sit behind the areas above the shoulders in particular: a torn vertebral artery with a clot in it and a small stroke after use on the neck, a second torn vertebral artery in a 27-year-old woman who had been using a modern massage gun regularly, and dislocated lenses with glaucoma in both eyes after use on closed eyelids (Romiyo and colleagues, 2025; Chen and colleagues, 2026). If your calf or thigh becomes swollen, warm, tender, red or darker than usual, or has a throbbing or cramping pain that feels different from normal muscle ache, do not massage or roll it. Stop and get medical advice the same day, as this can be a blood clot. If you are also short of breath or have chest pain, call emergency services. And dark pee (brown, red or tea-colored) after exercise, or muscles that become badly swollen, extremely painful or too weak to use, are not normal soreness. Go to an emergency department straight away, as these can be signs of serious muscle damage (rhabdomyolysis).
How long should you use a massage gun on one muscle?
There is no established dose, and the sources that give numbers do not agree. One systematic review suggests short applications of 2 minutes or less at higher frequencies for range of motion, and longer applications at lower frequencies for stiffness after a hard session, which is practical advice from its authors rather than a tested protocol (Ferreira and colleagues, 2023). The 2026 meta-analysis found that sessions longer than 5 minutes per muscle group came out worse for soreness, and it says plainly that its dose findings are preliminary and should not be treated as thresholds (Zhu and colleagues, 2026). A patient article from UCLA Health suggests keeping the head on muscle rather than on joints and bones, and not working one muscle group for more than two minutes in a session. For scale at the other end, the published case of rhabdomyolysis followed around 10 minutes across both thighs, applied by someone else, after two days of cycling (Chen and colleagues, 2021).
Do massage guns help with cramps and tight muscles?
Nothing was found on cramps. For the feeling of tightness the nearest measured outcome is range of motion, and 10 of the 13 studies in one systematic review measured flexibility, with improvement reported in every body area tested; 7 of those gave a single treatment, and all 7 found a gain straight afterwards (Sams and colleagues, 2023). One of its included studies, a controlled trial in 20 healthy adults, set the device against a plain static calf stretch and found no difference between them, which is the comparison that decides whether the device adds anything, and the one most pages leave out. Those changes were measured minutes after treatment rather than days later, and the review pooled nothing at all, because the methods and the device settings varied too much. A muscle that feels tight in the same place week after week is usually saying something about load or control, which is an assessment question rather than a device question.
References
- Sams L, Langdown BL, Simons J, Vseteckova J. The effect of percussive therapy on musculoskeletal performance and experiences of pain: a systematic literature review. International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy. 2023;18(2):309-327. https://doi.org/10.26603/001c.73795
- Ferreira RM, Silva R, Vigario P, Martins PN, Casanova F, Fernandes RJ, Sampaio AR. The effects of massage guns on performance and recovery: a systematic review. Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology. 2023;8(3):138. https://doi.org/10.3390/jfmk8030138
- Zhu Y, Yang L, Liu T, Yao F, Wang Q, Yi Z. Effects of percussive therapy dosages on recovery from acute exercise-induced muscle damage: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Chiropractic and Manual Therapies. 2026;34(1):34. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12998-026-00657-9
- Chen J, Zhang F, Chen H, Pan H. Rhabdomyolysis after the use of percussion massage gun: a case report. Physical Therapy. 2021;101(1):pzaa199. https://doi.org/10.1093/ptj/pzaa199
- Romiyo P, Furst T, George DD, et al. Vertebral artery dissection with cerebellar stroke after use of a percussive massage device: illustrative case. Journal of Neurosurgery: Case Lessons. 2025;9(21):CASE24812. https://doi.org/10.3171/CASE24812
- Chen Y, Wang Z, Zhou R, et al. Bilateral anterior lens luxation with secondary glaucoma strongly associated with self-application of a percussion massage gun to closed eyelids: a case report. BMC Ophthalmology. 2026;26(1):499. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12886-026-04952-0
- Kwon L. Portable percussive massage device-related rectus sheath hematoma and obstructive uropathy: a case report. Biomedicine Hub. 2024;9(1):89-93. https://doi.org/10.1159/000538709
- UCLA Health. Considering a massage gun? Here is what you need to know about percussive therapy. Published 2 February 2022. Read 1 October 2026. https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/considering-a-massage-gun-heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-percussive-therapy
- Cleveland Clinic. Rhabdomyolysis. Last updated 24 February 2023. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21184-rhabdomyolysis
- NHS. DVT (deep vein thrombosis). Page last reviewed 30 April 2026. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/deep-vein-thrombosis-dvt/
- NHS. Glaucoma. Page last reviewed 13 June 2025. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/glaucoma/
- NHS. Apixaban. Page last reviewed 21 January 2026. https://www.nhs.uk/medicines/apixaban/
- NHS. Symptoms of a stroke. Page last reviewed 12 September 2024. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stroke/symptoms/
- NHS. Sciatica. Page last reviewed 3 December 2024. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/sciatica/
Written and checked by the PocketPhysio editorial team. Last updated 2026-10-01.
This page is general education, not a diagnosis or a personal treatment plan. See a physiotherapist or doctor for advice about your own situation.