As a kind of extracorporeal shock wave therapy, radial extracorporeal shock wave therapy (rESWT) has been gradually applied to the rehabilitation treatment of diseases in various clinical systems and has become an important physiotherapy method in the department of rehabilitation medicine due to its benefits of high-efficiency, non-invasive, simple and safe, etc. Radial extracorporeal shock wave has unique biological and physical characteristics, and can play the role of anti-inflammatory, analgesia and neovascularization, etc. In this paper, the excellent efficacy of rESWT in orthopedic diseases, spastic paralysis, peripheral nerve injury, refractory wound and andrology diseases was described. This article aims to provide guidance for the clinical application of rESWT in the field of rehabilitation medicine.