The effectiveness of hip interventions in patients with low-back pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Low-back pain (LBP) may be directly or indirectly related to impairments from the hip joint. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of hip interventions on pain and disability in patients with LBP in the short-, medium-, and long-term. METHODS: PubMed, Cochrane Library, PEDro, Web of Science, and SCOPUS databases were searched in November 2022. Randomized controlled trials involving hip-targeted interventions compared to specific low back interventions in patients with LBP were selected. The outcomes were pain intensity and disability. The quality of the studies was assessed with the risk of bias tool. GRADE was used to rate the certainty of evidence. Meta-analyses were conducted using random effects models. RESULTS: A total of 2581 studies were screened. Eight were included in the meta-analysis involving 508 patients with LBP. The results provided very low certainty that both hip strengthening and hip stretching improved pain (MD = -0.66; 95% CI -0.86, -0.48; I2:0%) (MD = -0.55; 95% CI -1.02, -0.08) and disability (SMD = -0.81; 95% CI -1.53, -0.10; I2: 80%) (SMD = -1.03; 95% CI -1.82, -0.25) in the short-term, respectively. No benefits were found in the medium- or long-term. The risk of bias, heterogeneity, and imprecision of the results downgraded the level of evidence. CONCLUSIONS: Very low certainty evidence suggest a positive effect of hip strengthening in isolation or combined with specific low back exercise and hip stretching combined with specific low back exercise for decreasing pain intensity and disability in the short-term, in patients with LBP. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION NUMBER: PROSPERO CRD42022303173.

Guillain-Barre syndrome and Zika infection: identifying leading producers, countries relative specialization and collaboration.

Zika virus (Zikv) infection implies a significant public health issue due to the different syndromes associated. It is related to several central nervous system problems, such as microcephaly and Guillain-Barre Syndrome. In this way, the first document about the relation of Guillain-Barre Syndrome and Zika indexed in Web of Science was published in 2014. Therefore, the primary goal of the present study is to analyze the leading scientific producers, the relative specialization of the countries and the collaboration network in the research area. A total of 384 manuscripts were identified. Two manuscripts were published in 2014 and 2015; the remaining documents are distributed during 2016 (136), 2017 (186) and 2018 (59) (until April). In conclusion, Zikv and Guillain-Barre Syndrome research has experienced a significant increase in the last years. This may be related to the topic is an important issue of public health concern in the countries affected by Zikv outbreaks. In that sense, Brazil, India and Colombia make a great effort, considering their economic and social resources, in research. However, this study implies a preliminary overview of the research on this topic, a more extended period is needed to define the lines of research and collaboration between countries and authors.