When keen golfer Marlene Evans started to suffer excruciating pain in her hips she feared the worse.

"Even if I turned over slightly in the night, a shooting pain from my hip would wake me," she said.

"The final straw came when I was forced to take up to eight painkillers a day so that I could control the pain and get through a round of golf.

"Although the anti-inflammatory painkillers did take the edge off the pain, I started to feel dizzy and sick as a result. I knew that I had to find another way of dealing with it."

Wear and tear

Doctors initially thought Marlene, from Wrexham, had a deep vein thrombosis.

But tests revealed she had wear and tear of the hips and she was referred for treatment.

"Marlene had an excellent response, but the studies of it round the hip show these patients do very well"

"I thought I would need a hip replacement," she said.

She was then referred to Dr Tony Smith at Spire Yale Hospital, Wrexham.

He diagnosed that she had trochanteric bursititis, a common disorder of the hip that results from a swelling of the bursa - a small fluid sac that releases fluid to prevent friction between bones.

And he said a relatively new treatment - extra-corporeal shock wave therapy - might work.

The therapy was first developed 20 years ago as a treatment for kidney stones but has only just been recognised as an orthopaedic treatment in the UK.

It uses high energy sound waves which are focused on the injury using a special pad.

A vibrating hand-held wand attached to a generator delivers the shockwaves in short bursts. Repeated applications have an analgesic effect which breaks down calcifications in the area and stimulates blood supply and the formation of new bone tissue.

Speedy treatment

Dr Smith explained that the treatment, which takes a matter of minutes to carry out over the course of three weeks, had been shown to have good results when used on the hip.

"Marlene had an excellent response, but the studies of it round the hip show these patients do very well.

"We do offer it to a variety of patients and the results are not remarkable in all areas, but you are dealing with a very difficult problem."

The treatment, which is carried out on joints like the hips, shoulder, ankle, is not widely available on the NHS and costs about £600 a course.

Jane Tadman from Arthritis Research UK said that there was currently little research evidence to show that extra-corporeal shock wave therapy was effective in the treatment of trochanteric bursitis.

"Trochanteric bursitis of the hip is quite common, and in most cases is self-limiting and normally clears up on its own with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and steroids, physiotherapy and exercise," she added.

But Marlene, who got her treatment on the NHS late last year, says she has no doubts recommending the treatment.

"It was not painful," she said.

"I had the three treatments and was starting to feel better very quickly, almost the same week.

"He has really 'cured' it because I have not been taking painkillers.

"I haven't had a sleepless night for nine months. I am so relieved that I didn't have to have surgery and will definitely recommend it to anyone else."