The purpose with this literary study was to make a survey of methods and applications of ultrasound (UL) and its effects in connection with rehabilitation of musculoskeletal diseases. The information retrieval was executed via PubMed (includes Medline), AMED, Cochrane, CINAHL and PEDro. The work is presented in a descriptive design. The resultant summary disclosed that UL is mostly used for the alleviation of pain and in order to prepare tissues for stretching. Yet, UL did not bestow any alleviation of the pain in comparison with placebo; combined with stretching, however, an increased mobility was evinced in three studies. Other treatments combined with UL were training (mobility, strength), massage (cross-friction) and medicine (phonophoresis). For stretching and alleviation of pain, a continuous respectively pulsating UL was selected. There is a defect in the study due to only a few published studies of each condition, and for this reason it was difficult to draw, any general conclusions from the use of UL to different musculoskeletal diseases. More high-quality clinical studies are needed in the future. If physiotherapists themselves are not prepared to undertake research within this area, the use of UL will remain a treatment without any real scientific anchorage.

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