Perhaps it is misleading to call what the doctors did to ease Susan Baker’s heel pain an operation, since no cutting or lengthy hospital stay was required.

It involved anesthetic, yes, but no stitches or grueling rehabilitation. The reason: a bulky contraption in the corner of the room that resembled a copier with a long arm. It was a shockwave machine.

Baker, 60, a Naples, Fla., resident, had come to the Bonita Community Health Center in Bonita Springs, Fla., looking for something to ease her heel pain. Although most people like her with intense heel pain from ailments like plantar fasciitis can be treated without surgery, some eventually require it.

Dr. Mickey Gordon, a podiatrist, offered an alternative: extracorporeal shock-wave therapy, or firing high-energy waves into the foot.

It offered hope for Baker. She had trouble just getting around for a year but did not want to go under the knife or risk any further complications or lengthy treatment.

“Whenever I walk, I don’t put my heel down,” she said. But, Baker said in an interview just before she was wheeled into the operating room, she “did not want any invasive surgery.”

The machine, which dominated the room, is new to Southwest Florida. Baker is one of a very few people in the area to undergo shock-wave therapy.

Gordon injected her with anesthesia first, remarking that it would be the most cutting he would do that day. Then, he drew a couple of lines and a smiley face circle on her foot, for where the machine would fire shock waves in to her body.

“It’ll be the easiest surgery you’ll ever have,” Gordon said.

Dr. Mickey Gordon, left, holds patient Susan Baker's foot in contact with the shock-wave therapy machine while it fires some 2,000 shock waves to alleviate the pain in her heel. The 15-minute procedure is noninvasive and offers a fast recovery time.

Representatives from OssiTron, the company that owns the machine, were there to operate it and supervise the procedure. Others from the health center gathered in the room as well, mostly to watch the new gizmo at work.

Gordon applied some conducting gel to her foot, lined up the machine’s arm, which ends in a purple-blue oval, to the smiley face. He then began firing the shock waves.

The waves looked like short, sharp bright flashes. They sounded as a series of loud and steady thumps. Many in the room wore earplugs.

The shock waves fire into bones and tissue, getting rid of scarring that has hurt tendons and ligaments, according to the company and the magazine BioMechanics. Gordon said the shock waves re-injure the foot, but in a way that lessens pain and allows tissues to heal more quickly by improving blood flow.

Patient susan Baker's foot is held in place by Dr. Mickey Gordon against a saline-filled sack, where an electrode fires shockwaves into the heel area.

The procedure was over in about 15 minutes. Baker was resting afterwards, ready to go home to take it easy for a few weeks.

Because there is no surgery, there is also less risk of potential complications. And since it does not require an overnight stay, the procedure is a plus for facilities like the Bonita Community Health Center.

Although the Food and Drug Administration has approved the shock-wave therapy for heel pain known as plantar fasciitis, Medicare will still not pay for it. Some insurance companies have come around.

That short recovery period is one of Gordon’s biggest selling points — even for some potential patients who were insured by Medicare.

“To buy back a significant part of your life’s worth something,” he said. “I treated a guy this morning. He’ll be golfing again in four weeks now instead of a year.”