EFFICACY OF SHOCKWAVE THERAPY VERSUS KINESIO TAPING ON PATIENTS WITH LATERAL EPICONDYLITIS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS

A. Abdelhamed^1,2, M. Shahien³, M. Amr^1,2, S. Ammar^1,2, M. Fahmy^1,2

¹Misr University for Science and Technology, Physical Therapy, Giza, Egypt, ²Misr University for Science and Technology, Student Research Unit, Giza, Egypt, ³Cairo University, Physical Therapy, Giza, Egypt

Background: Lateral epicondylitis, or tennis elbow, is the frequent cause of lateral elbow pain that affects 1-3% of the general population. For lateral epicondylitis, there are numerous surgical and non-surgical treatments. However, it is recommended to choose non-surgical therapy. There are a rising number of clinical trials that evaluate the efficacy of shockwave versus Kinesio taping in lateral epicondylitis patients. Therefore, this study aims to systemically evaluate the effect of shockwave versus Kinesio taping in the rehabilitation of lateral epicondylitis patients.

Purpose: To investigate the effect of shockwave therapy versus Kinesio taping on grip strength and pain suffering from lateral epicondylitis.

Methods: We performed an electronic search through PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane, Scopus, and PEDro databases from inception till 31 august 2022. We included only randomized clinical trials that include shockwave versus Kinesio taping interventions in lateral epicondylitis participants. Data from included articles were extracted and reviewed.

Results: We included three studies according to our selection criteria, involving a total of 110 participants. The included participants suffered from lateral epicondylitis for at least 3months. The meta-analysis of three studies didn’t show a significant difference between the application of shockwave and Kinesio taping concerning pain (standardized mean difference (SMD) 0.437; 95% confidence interval (CI) -0.702 to 1.576; P = 0.452). Regarding grip strength, the pooled analysis didn’t show a significant difference (standardized mean difference (SMD) -0.245.; 95% confidence interval (CI) - 1.841 to 1.351; P = 0.763). Moreover, the pooled effect size didn’t conclude significant between-group difference regarding the patient-rated tennis elbow evaluation scale (standardized mean difference (SMD) 0.384; 95% confidence interval (CI) -1.216 to 1.984; P = 0.638).

Conclusions: The evaluation of studies proved that the use of Kinesio taping seems to be similar to the use of shockwave. However, to synthesize evidence, more randomized clinical trials with larger sample sizes are required.

Implications: Future research on shockwave therapy versus Kinesio taping in managing lateral epicondylitis patients must concentrate on improving the clinical trial design, including a larger sample size representing the population and focusing on a more unified parameter of the administrated intervention program. Therefore, more high-quality randomized clinical trials with large sample sizes are required to establish their effectiveness.

Funding acknowledgements: The work was unfunded.

Keywords:
Shock wave
Lateral epicondylitis
Kinesiotaping

Topics:
Musculoskeletal: upper limb
Orthopaedics

Did this work require ethics approval? No

Reason: The proposed abstract is for a systematic review, which is secondary research. Moreover, there was no direct patient-therapist contact or any interventional or experimental research. Which requires no ethical approval.