Diabetic foot ulcer is one of the severe chronic complications that lead to disability and death of diabetic patients. In order to solve this problem, adjuvant therapy studies of diabetic foot ulcers have increased in recent years. Extracorporeal shock wave therapy is a novel adjuvant therapy that has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for diabetic foot ulcers wounds. In this paper, the mechanisms of extracorporeal shock wave therapy for diabetic foot ulcers are described, including wound angiogenesis, wound tissue blood perfusion, nerve regeneration, granulation tissue proliferation, inflammatory response, anti-infection, migration and differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells and endothelial progenitor cells. This study aims to provide a theoretical basis for the clinical application of extracorporeal shock wave therapy in clinical treatment of diabetic foot ulcers.